‘Married At First Sight’ Enjoys Honeymoon Period For Channel Nine

Even after admitting that the whole marriage ceremony is a sham, Channel Nine has pulled in a national audience of 1.103 million viewers according to Oztam Metro Figures for its second episode of Married At First Sight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcIsb2gpUXA

The controversial TV series features four potential couples who Channel Nine report have been whittled down from thousands of applicants. They are then vetted by relationship experts. They meet for the first time at the altar and the program then follows them for a month while they go on honeymoon, live together and meet each other’s respective families.

The show was criticised for trivialising marriage by both family rights advocates and same-sex marriage advocates.

No surprise here, but the whole thing was a sham for TV ratings. A Nine spokesperson told The Sydney Morning Herald: “In order to comply with the Australian Marriage Act, which requires one month and one day notification, a marriage in law was not conducted.”

“Each participant embarked on a commitment ceremony with a wedding celebrant with all due intention to commit fully to this union for the duration of the experiment. At the end of the experiment they are given the option to continue with the relationship or go their separate ways.”

So despite the Twitter controversy and the finger-wagging, the marriages are not legally binding.

Top 10 Shows according to OzTam data.

1 NINE NEWS Network 9 1,246,000
2 NINE NEWS 6:30 Network 9 1,140,000
3 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA MON Network TEN 1,112,000
4 MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT Network 9 1,103,000
5 SEVEN NEWS Network 7 1,099,000
6 SEVEN NEWS / TODAY TONIGHT Network 7 1,046,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Network 9 997,000
8 ABC NEWS-EV Network ABC 842,000
9 HOME AND AWAY Network 7 828,000
10 HOUSE RULES-MON Network 7 820,000

Audience Share:

Network 9 21.6%
Network 7 17.4%
Network TEN 15.6%
Network ABC 14.2%
Network SBS ONE 5.2%
Network 7TWO 4.7%
Network GO! 4.2%
Network 7mate 4.0%
Network Gem 3.1%
Network ONE 2.8%
Network ELEVEN 2.7%
Network ABC2 2.3%
Network ABC News 24 0.9%
Network SBS 2 0.8%
Network ABC3 0.5%
Network NITV 0.1%

Total Audience Share:

Network 9 TTL 28.9%
Network 7 TTL 26.0%
Network TEN TTL 21.2%
Network ABC TTL 17.9%
Network SBS TTL 6.0%

I guess Commitment Ceremony (That Isn’t Legally Binding) At First Sight isn’t as catchy or controversial.

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