Australian made drama series Love Child looks like it will be an instant hit after it launched with more than a million viewers and outgunned US series Revenge.
Love Child, set in 1969, is about a spirited housewife, Joan Miller, who gets swept up in the plight of five young women in an unwed mothers home attached to a hospital.
It stars Jessica Marais as Miller, Jonathan LaPaglia as Dr Patrick McNaughton and Mandy McElhinney as matron Frances Bolton.
The opening episode of the Nine Network series pulled an audience of 1.354 million to be second only to mega hit My Kitchen Rules which attracted 1.925 million viewers.
Nine's reality series The Block: Fans v Faves was third on OzTAM's overnight ratings with 1.198 million viewers and Nine News (1.162 million) was fourth.
The Block improved by about 300,000 viewers on last Monday's figures and the launch of Love Child put a dent in the ratings of its timeslot rival, the Seven Network's Revenge.
Revenge lost about 200,000 viewers in a week.
It was 11th with 862,000 viewers on Monday compared to finishing sixth with 1.069 million viewers the week before.
Overall it was a big night for Nine with its one hour nightly news service beating Seven and A Current Affair (1.132 million) got the upper hand on soapie Home And Away (939,000).
Most watched shows on Monday
1. My Kitchen Rules (Nine) - 1.925 million
2. Love Child (Nine) - 1.354 million
3. The Block: Fans V Faves (Nine) - 1.198 million
4. Nine News (Nine) - 1.162 million
5. Nine News 6:30 (Nine) - 1.134 million
6. A Current Affair (Nine) - 1.132 million
7. Seven News (Seven) - 1.121 million
8. Seven News/Today Tonight (Seven) - 1.117 million
9. Home And Away (Seven) - 939,000
10. ABC News (ABC1) - 875,000
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11. Revenge (Seven) - 862,000
* Source OzTAM
