Victorian cousins ‘smiley’ Sam and Chris did not prove as large a draw-card as the spice girls for My Kitchen Rules as viewers dropped under the 2 million mark last night.

More than 1.8 million viewers watched the introduction of MKR’s second group of contestants on Thursday evening, according to OzTam’s preliminary metro ratings.

It is the first time the show has dipped below 2 million this week after a high of 2.28 million viewers on Monday.

MKR did mash its 7.30pm and reality competition The Block: All Stars which pulled in 858,000 viewers for Nine.

The Block was the second most watched show in the 16-39 and 18-49 demos behind My Kitchen Rules.

Ten’s only top 20 program was Ten News at Five in 11^th place with 625,000 viewers.

But American Idol did push its way into the top 10 among 16-39 year olds, where it sat in ninth place with 172,000 viewers.

The competition was also watched by 237,000 18-49 year olds where it sat in 11^th place.

Returning to total people, Seven’s new series of Bones pulled in 916,000 viewers in sixth place.

Seven News was the second most watched show with 1.116 million viewers ahead of Nine News’ 1.092 million.

Seven’s main channel took a commanding 27% share of viewers ahead of Nine’s 18.8%, The ABC’s 11.6%, Ten’s 9.5% and SBS’s 5.1%.