We’re still two weeks out from official ratings season, but the gloves are off in 2019’s TV ratings battle.
Last night Nine and Seven debuted two of arguably their strongest shows of the year, with Seven’s My Kitchen Rules going head-to-head with Nine’s Married At First Sight, with the later snaring early bragging rights.
According to OzTam’s metro numbers, MAFS enjoyed 1.03 million viewers on debut versus MKR’s 816,000. All this impacted on 10’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here which could muster only 674,000.
Interestingly, MKR’s debut was its worst numbers in the show’s 10-year history and was down 31 per cent on 2018’s debut that pulled 1.182 million.
Commenting on MAFS’ early success, Nine’s chief sales officer, Michael Stephenson, said: “Married at First Sight has shown it is an audience favourite. It was the number one entertainment show last night and again won across the key demographics – 25-54s, 16-39s and grocery shopper and child. We know the audience, across television and especially in BVOD on 9Now, will only build from here as Australia’s biggest reality program takes hold of the national water cooler conversation.
“We are also heartened to see the growth in the launch audience for Married at First Sight. This only underlines the reasons why Nine chose to make the switch to tennis and the amazing launch vehicle is it for our first quarter programming,” Stephenson said.
Seven will take some solace in the fact its 6pm news bulletin was the most watched show of the night (raking in 1.024 million) and it also won viewer share for the night with 33.6 per cent.
Nine was the second-most watched broadcaster with 30.1 per cent, 10 had 16.8 per cent, the ABC managed 14.9 per cent and practically no one watched the SBS, it could manage a paltry 4.6 per cent.
Other standouts for Seven included Today Tonight (966,000), The Good Doctor (621,000) and The Chase (580,000).
Nine’s 6pm news pulled 931,000, A Current Affair posted 710,000, Hot Seat had 437,000 and Fifty Shades Darker had 314,000.
For 10, its best was I’m A Celeb with 674,000, The Project with 438,000 and Murphy Brown with 318,000.
The ABC’s standouts were: 7pm news (642,000), 7.30 (564,000), Back Roads (555,000) and a repeat of David Attenborough’s Tasmania (498,000).
SBS’ best was its World News with 180,000, which made it the 58th most watched show of the evening.
