The epic men's final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal attracted an average five city metro audience of 2.6 million viewers with a handful more tuning in for the end.

That marks the biggest television audience for the tennis since 2005 and one million extra viewers than tuned in to watch Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray in 2016.

The tennis ratings were more than double the audience Ten managed to secure for the first episode of I'm A Celebrity ... which saw notable folk as diverse as Steve Price, Lisa Curry Kenny, Casey Donovan and Tom Arnold entering the South African jungle.

The first part of the show, which saw the celebrities arrive in the jungle, attracted an average audience of 963,000 in the capital cities before a handful more tuned in to see them undertake their first challenges.

I'm A Celebrity ... was in seventh position for the night overall, but Ten will be happy with the numbers which are only slightly down on what the show achieved from the starting blocks last year.

While Seven and Ten both have cause to celebrate, programmers at Nine will be wringing their hands over their Sunday night results.

The return of 60 Minutes attracted a disappointing audience of just 588,000, while their new US drama Lethal Weapon fared even worse with just 488,000 watching in the metro markets.

The massive numbers for the tennis also helped Seven take out the third position for the night with some of the overflow helping Sandra Bullock's 1995 film The Net secure an audience of 1.4 million.

The Top 10

Australian Open men's finals (Presentation) - Seven - 2,772,000

Australian Open men's finals - Seven - 2,627,000

The Net - Seven - 1,455,000

Australian Open men's finals (Preview)- 1,235,000

Seven News - Seven - 1,195,000

Nine News - Nine - 1,110,000

I'm A Celebrity... (Opening Night) - Ten - 1,103,000

I'm A Celebrity... (Welcome to the Jungle) - Ten - 963,000

60 Minutes - Nine - 588,000

ABC News - ABC - 562,000

Ratings courtesy OzTam