The second outing of Ten’s Recipe to Riches failed to make the top 20 most watched shows last night, with Under the Dome and The Project the only ten shows to appear in the list.

Seven’s soapy and real-life crime programs were enough to outstrip Big Brother in the ratings, as contestants in Nine’s reality show prepare to go to the polls in a meaningful way tonight.

In an Australian TV first the housemates will cast their votes, after seeing party broadcasts from Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Clive Palmer and Christine Milne, in the show broadcast at 7pm.

While Greens leader Milne and Labor’s Rudd both addressed gay marriage as an issue, Palmer talked about making Australia “a lucky country again” and Abbott sidestepped any political policies saying the housemates were “lucky” to be missing the election campaign adding: “If you want to know who to vote for, I’m the guy with the not bad looking daughters…”

But last night the show’s usual voting – nominations – got 812,000 viewers, failing to lift it above its rivals in the 7pm – 8.30pm slot on Seven with The Force (1.127m), Border Security (1.092m) and Home and Away (952,000) all beating it into 12^th overall in the OzTam overnight ratings.  

Ten had high hopes for Recipe to Riches, featuring Droga5's creative partner David Nobay, which it has promoted heavily throughout other shows including MasterChef, and its failure to fire left the station fourth overall with 13.2%, behind ABC1 15.3%, Nine 18% and Seven’s 22.1% for the primary channels.