Kevin's Devon snail shell house sneaks up behind The Block Glasshouse in ratings
The premiere of Nine Network's increasingly cruel reality renovation series The Block attracted 1.374 million viewers.
Host Scott Cam toyed with the constantant teams who got a first look inside the massive 1980s office block conversion project in Prahran.
At times the lack of hard hats - especially when hastily ripping down the office bock ceiling - almost appeared close to downright dangerous.
Sunday night's Nine News sat in second place with MasterChef in third place after drawing an audience of 1.261 million, according OzTAM's figures.
The Block was possibly the highest rating program of Sunday night due to the network’s decision to simulcast the show across its multi-channel, Go! and Gem in the 6.30pm time slot against Seven’s X Factor which had an audience of 1.14 million.
Meanwhile the ABC's architectural show Grand Designs featuring East Devon cob-style home sat strongly in sixth spot with 988,000 viewers, beating both 60 Minutes and Sunday Night.
Host Kevin McCloud was tracking the process of a snail-shell shaped cob house which used ancient building material and 21st century technology. Its made from mud, straw, water, clay and sand.
Kevin McCabe was the owner builder, wrestling houses out of mud using his bare hands for his proposed house formed of two vast curved cob roundhouses - the largest of which is inspired by the natural geometry of a snail shell.
The latest Block Glasshouse ratings sit within prior Block premiere audiences which included The Block Sky High premiere in South Melbourne of 1.312 million.
The Block All Stars at Bondi premiered with just 959,000 viewers tuning in, and the first-night set in South Melbourne with four adjoining Dorcas Street terraces rated an average 1.4 million viewers.
The Block's 2011’s Melbourne debut had 1,342,000 viewers for the Richmond cottage renovation.
The most recent Albert Park series, The Block Fans v Faves secured a 1.14 million opening night five capital city audience.