The Block busted down to third on its debut

Nine’s new Wednesday reality TV lineup failed to catch fire with The Block beaten into third place behind Seven’s Border Security and Ten’s Glee, while The Boss Is Coming To Dinner delivered only 788,000 viewers.

Nine had hoped that home reality contest The Block would deliver the blockbuster ratings of the original 2003 series which averaged 2.4m.

But last night saw its product endorsement-heavy debut pull in a capital city audience of just 1.134m, ninth for the night and less than half that of the first series, according to preliminary overnight ratings from OzTam.