The official TV ratings season may not start again until the end of the month, but Network Ten has had one of its best nights of a dreary year.
Outside of its major sports coverage, the beleaguered network has struggled to make the top 20 - let alone the top 10 - this year.
But on Tuesday, Ten had five shows in the top 20 - and all of them topped half a million viewers.
NCIS was Ten's highest rating program, with an audience of 789,000. It missed a top 10 berth by only 3000 viewers.
Also recording solid viewing figures were Ten News (673,000), NCIS Los Angeles (618,000), The Project 7pm (611,000) and Jamie & Jimmy's Food Fight Club (531,000).
Last Tuesday, when the Seven Network's reality series My Kitchen Rules and the Nine Network's The Block: Fans v Faves were on air, it was a different story.
Ten had just two shows in the top 20 (The Project 7pm and Ten News) that night, and Jamie and & Jimmy's Food Fight Club could muster only 293,000 viewers.
Tuesday's result is also a major improvement on a disastrous night in late March when things could not have been worse for the network.
Ten's highest-rating show on Monday, March 30 was its News with 473,000, followed by the imported crime drama Elementary (380,000).
The latest ratings are a small step forward for Ten, which will launch its reality show MasterChef after Easter and begin its Commonwealth Games coverage on July 23.
However, the usual suspects filled the top 10 on Tuesday.
Nine News (1.254 million) beat Nine News 6.30pm (1.199 million), with Seven News (1.058 million) finishing third, according to OzTAM's overnight ratings.
Most watched shows on Tuesday
1. Nine News (Nine) - 1.254 million
2. Nine News: 6.30pm (Nine) - 1.199 million
3. Seven News (Seven) - 1.058 million
4. Seven News/Today Tonight (Seven) - 993,000
5. Home And Away (Seven) - 970,000
6. ABC News (ABC1) - 959,000
7. The Big Bang Theory rpt Ep2 (Nine) - 959,000
8. The Big Bang Theory rpt Ep1 (Nine) - 945,000
9. A Current Affair (Nine) - 929,000
10. Tom & Ben's Singapore Sling (Seven) - 792,000
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11. NCIS (Ten) - 789,000
14. Ten News (Ten) 673,000
15. NCIS: Los Angeles (Ten) - 618,000
17. The Project: 7pm (Ten) - 611,000
20. Jamie & Jimmy's Food Fight Club (Ten) - 531,000
*Source OzTAM
