Ashes, Jacko and Masterchef squeeze out The Chaser

The first session of The Ashes helped SBS to one of its biggest TV audience shares of the year so far in an evening dominated by Michael Jackson and which left little room for The Chaser.

An average of 680,000 tuned in to the resumption of hostilities in cricket’s biggest rivalry, giving SBS a share of 13.4% of Wednesday night – about twice its typical OzTam ratings result.

And in a competitive night’s viewing, ABC1’s The Chaser’s War On Everything was the loser, with its audience dropping to below a million – a fall of more than a third on the series opening.

However, it would seem that cooking and cricket attract different audiences. MasterChef pulled in an audience of more than 1.9m – its highest weekday audience yet.