Network Ten can only gain on the slight 1.17 million audience it attracted for the season two premiere of The Biggest Loser on Sunday night.
Billed as bigger and better than last year's show, the new cast of obese Australians attempting to turn their lives around was hit hard by summer TV's ratings certainty, the Aussie cricket team.
An average of 1.781 million viewers tuned into the evening session of the final outing by Ricky Ponting's men before the Tri-Series cricket final begins on Friday.
As the Australians returned to their winning ways against New Zealand, the audience peaked at 2.8 million viewers.
It was the second most watched program of the night behind the Nine Network News, which averaged 1.784 million viewers, and the third highest rating one-day match of the summer.
The Biggest Loser, the fifth most popular show on Sunday night behind Nine and Seven's news and the afternoon and evening cricket sessions, lagged well behind last year's debut, which attracted 1.4 million viewers without the cricket as competition.
However, as audiences were introduced to this year's contestants Ten claimed victory in its target 16 to 39-year-old demographic with a 42.6 per cent share. The total audience peaked at 1.45 million.
The Biggest Loser will now continue on week nights at 7pm with a weekly weigh-in episode on Sundays.
In the first week a contestant will walk off the show and another will be rushed to hospital.
As happened last year, Loser's audience is expected to grow throughout the series.
The 2006 finale of the first Australian version of the show was watched by 2.3 million viewers on a Thursday night.
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