News

Married at First Sight cracks 1m viewers on debut for Nine as NRL beats Game of Thrones

The debut of Nine’s controversial reality program Married at First Sight pulled in 1.134m at 8.45pm timeslot to be the most-watched non-news show of the evening, topping Ten’s Masterchef.

The ratings success came as Nine announced it had already commissioned a second series of the show, which has faced a barrage of criticism with accusations it is “morally unsound”.

Undeterred, Nine said it has been “buoyed by the bumper launch figures” and confirmed a second series of Married at First Sight would shortly enter production and air in 2016.

The show, which sees eight single people meet their new spouses on their wedding day, has been the subject of a Change.org petition which currently boasts 21,067 signatures, urging Channel Nine to take the show off the air as it is “morally unsound and should not be aired on Australian television”. However, because of Australian laws the couples are not legally married on the show.

It was the most-watched show amongst the key advertising demographic of people aged 25-54 as Masterchef was the most-watched show amongst people aged 16-39 and 18-49.

Nine Network director of programming and production Andrew Backwell said: “We are all so immensely proud of this program and are pleased that it has resonated so strongly with Australian viewers. From the outset, we knew that what we were creating was not just another reality program, rather a ground-breaking social experiment.

“We are thrilled that people have formed their own opinions on the value of this radical method of matchmaking.”

Married at First Sight helped Nine secure a winning audience share of 21.8 per cent, as Reno Rumble was out-rated by Masterchef in the 7.30pm timeslot.

Masterchef pulled in 1.129m viewers, easily out-rating both Reno Rumble which grabbed an audience of 797,000 to narrowly beat Seven’s House Rules, which was watched by 779,000.

Both Reno Rumble and House Rules were out-rated by the ABC’s 7.30 which grabbed a metro audience of 852,000.

House Rules was up on last week’s audience of 684,000, while Reno Rumble’s numbers slipped from last week’s 847,000.

Seven had an audience share of 17.3 per cent, ahead of Ten’s share of 15.6 per cent. The ABC was just behind with a share of 15.4 per cent.

On pay-TV Game of Thrones was beaten for the second week by the live Monday night NRL match, this week between the Sea Eagles and the Panthers on Fox Sports 1 which had 236,000 viewers.

Both the 11am fast-tracked episode of the HBO show, which got 159,000 viewers, and the 7.30pm showing which had 209,000 viewers were down on last week.

They sandwiched Monday Night with Matty Johns which had an audience of 162,000.

Back on free-TV in the 8.45pm timeslot, Seven’s Revenge was watched by  534,000, with 503,000 sticking around for a second episode.

Meanwhile on Ten, Have You Been Paying Attention, airing from 8.30pm, was watched by 625,000.

On the ABC, Australian Story (8pm) had an audience of 903,000, Four Corners (8.30pm), was watched by 753,000, Media Watch (9.20pm) pulled in 637,000 and Q&A (9.30pm) lured an audience of 534,000.

In news, Nine News won the night with a metro audience of 1.275m at 6pm, dropping to 1.184m from 6.30pm.

Seven News was watched by 1.171m at 6pm, slipping to 1.097m at 6.30pm.

Top 15 Shows:

1 NINE NEWS Network 9 1,275,000
2 NINE NEWS 6:30 Network 9 1,184,000
3 A CURRENT AFFAIR Network 9 1,172,000
4 SEVEN NEWS Network 7 1,171,000
5 MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT Network 9 1,134,000
6 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA MON Network TEN 1,129,000
7 SEVEN NEWS / TODAY TONIGHT Network 7 1,097,000
8 ABC NEWS-EV Network ABC 950,000
9 AUSTRALIAN STORY-EV Network ABC 903,000
10 HOME AND AWAY Network 7 864,000
11 7.30-EV Network ABC 852,000
12 RENO RUMBLE -MON Network 9 797,000
13 HOUSE RULES-MON Network 7 779,000
14 HOT SEAT Network 9 769,000
15 FOUR CORNERS-EV Network ABC 753,000

Audience Share:

Network 9 21.8%
Network 7 17.3%
Network TEN 15.6%
Network ABC 15.4%
Network SBS ONE 4.3%
Network 7TWO 4.2%
Network GO! 3.9%
Network Gem 3.5%
Network 7mate 3.3%
Network ONE 3.0%
Network ABC2 2.7%
Network ELEVEN 2.6%
Network SBS 2 1.0%
Network ABC3 0.4%
Network ABC News 24 0.8%
Network NITV 0.0%

Total Audience Share:

Network 9 TTL 29.2%
Network 7 TTL 24.8%
Network TEN TTL 21.2%
Network ABC TTL 19.4%
Network SBS TTL 5.4% 6.1%

Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2015. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.