Modern Family is the newest US comedy to get high ratings overnight in Australia.

On its debut episode at 8pm, the program that airs in Ten drew 1.54 million viwers, as compared with its competitions, Seven's Australia's Got Talent with 1.42 million viewers, and Nine's Top Gear with 1.1 million viewers.

Another good news is that it slightly built off the back of MasterChef which airs 30 minutes before Modern Family and had 1.53 million viewers.

The good ratings that the US program received is similar to the Australian's reception to Friends, another US comedy shown on an Australian Commercial network.

Other US TV series that aired in Australia are Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. Both did not experience a chart-topping debut, but were able to give big numbers for Nine.

Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd produced Modern Family for 20th Century Fox Television, and the Ten Network currently owns the program through an output deal that it sealed with the 20th Century Fox Studio.