Record viewers for Gillard Q&A

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MORE than 840,000 Australians tuned in to watch Prime Minister Julia Gillard being grilled by a studio audience on the ABC's Q&A program.

The figure was a record for the program since its 2008 debut, the ABC said in a statement.

The program, which had an audience of 841,000, rated higher than Seven's Criminal Minds (804,000) and Nine's CSI: Miami (741,000), but couldn't reach the numbers of Ten's Good News Week (946,000).

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott gets his turn before the live studio audience on next Monday's Q&A.;

The most watched program of the night was Seven's nightly news, which attracted 1.569 million viewers, followed by A Current Affair (1.379 million) and Nine's 6pm news (1.365 million).

Seven's Today Tonight (1.341 million) and Nine's 7.30pm episode of Two and a Half Men (1.300 million) rounded out the top five.