Seven’s heavily promoted Zumbo’s Just Desserts appears to be deflating quicker than an underdone chocolate souffle and must now be a major headache for Seven bosses as viewers desert the dessert program.

Last night’s third instalment attracted 734,000 metro viewers according to Oztam measurements. It’s been a dramatic and sudden decline from the 1.08 million viewers the show attracted when it premiered on Monday night. Tuesday’s second episode pulled in 830,000 viewers, meaning the cake-off has shed a third of viewers in three days.

It now must be a major worry for Seven execs who promoted it heavily during its Olympic Games coverage and would be relying on Zumbo to take viewers into its evening schedule of shows.

Last night Zumbo’s Just Desserts was the 12th most watched show; however, it wasn’t all bad news for Seven who won the night with its news and Today Tonight.

Things were merrier over at the ABC. Gruen was the fourth most watched show of the night with 927,000 and it’s new art-come-chat-come-comedy show Anh’s Brush With Fame debuted at 10th spot with an impressive 806,000 viewers.

It will now be interesting to see how Seven attempt to resurrect its Zumbo experiment. The family-friendly cake competition simply won’t work in a latter time slot while the pre-records would mean it’s probably too late to meddle with the format.

That said, a quick perusal of Zumbo’s Facebook page suggest it has a loyal following. However, most of the comments and criticisms appear to be of the actual contestants rather than the sweet treats they’ve baked.