Agar's stand helps Nine dominate NINE Entertainment Co chief David Gyngell must have been the second most excited Australian last night after Ashes cricket debutant Ashton Agar saved Australia from a rout and Nine from a looming ratings disaster. More than a million Australians tuned in to see Ashton Agar, coming in at number 11, help Australia to a miraculous first-innings lead over England despite a spectacular batting collapse. The innings was not only crucial for Australia but regardless of the outcome of the first test against England it set the series up to be compelling viewing for cricket fans. About 665,000 watched the first session on Nine's digital channel Gem, with 401,000 viewing on Fox Sports. A further 467,000 hung around for the second session to see Agar get out on a record 98, with 298,000 staying tuned on pay-TV. Nine was again dominant thanks to what was the second day of Ashes action with a 23.2 per cent channel share and a network share of 42.0 per cent. That included a record 15 per cent multichannel share for Gem, which was the third-most-watched channel of the night ahead of Ten, the ABC and SBS. On the main free-to-air channels, Nine News was the top-rating program with 1.334 million, according to preliminary OzTAM data, followed by The Block Sky High with 1.266 million. Seven's audience was held to just 17 per cent on its main channel and 22.2 per cent when its multichannels were included. Ten News at Five was that network's only program in the top 15 and its channel share was 10.9 per cent (14.8 per cent for the network) ahead of SBS (4.8 per cent and 5.7 per cent).