Married at First Sight season two debut pulls 771,000 for Nine, down on last year’s figures
The return of Nine’s controversial dating reality show Married at First Sight pulled in 771,000 metro viewers at 7.30pm last night, well below the launch of season one last year.
Nine replaced struggling Reno Rumble with Married at First Sight, which sees eight single people meet their new spouses on their wedding day, at the end of March.
Last night’s season two debut was down 33% on last year’s premiere which saw 1.134m tune in at 8.45pm.
The finale of the six-episode season one run was watched by 1.290m metro viewers. Married at First Sight’s first series only dipped below the 1m viewer mark once.
In the competitive 7.30pm time slot it was easily out-rated by Seven’s My Kitchen Rules, which grabbed 1.273m metro viewers, and by the ABC’s 7.30 was which was watched by 853,000.
Married at First Sight did beat Ten’s All Star Family Feud which was watched by 670,000.
Looking at the key advertising demographics (16-39, 18-49 and 25-54) My Kitchen Rules was the most-watched program and Married at First Sight was the second-most watched show.
Seven won the evening with an audience share of 24.6%, ahead of Nine’s share of 17.3%. The ABC claimed third place with an audience share of 15.5% as Ten settled for a share of 13.1%.
Reno Rumble, which aired at 8.50pm on Nine, was watched by 424,000, up on last week’s audience when it was watched by 370,000 metro viewers in the 7.30pm timeslot.
Downton Abbey, on Seven at 9pm, pulled in 838,000 metro viewers, down slightly on last week’s audience of 870,000.
On Ten, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, airing from 8.30pm, was watched by 455,000.
On the ABC, Australian Story (8pm) had a metro audience of 800,000, Four Corners (8.30pm) was watched by 902,000 Media Watch (9.20pm) grabbed 712,000 and Q&A (9.35pm) pulled in 453,000.
Seven News at 6pm won the news battle with a metro audience of 1.086m, slipping to 1.029m from 6.30pm. Nine News at 6pm was watched by 1.083m, dipping to 1.023m from 6.30pm.
In breakfast TV, Seven’s Sunrise was watched by 317,000 metro viewers while Nine’s Today grabbed 336,000 metro viewers.
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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Is there any show that is actually up on previous seasons, or is it all downhill from here for broadcast TV?
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Can Nine do anything right??
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Hi Gravity,
Gogglebox managed it last season for one, but it’s a rarity.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
Oh No!….. Married at First Sight down nearly a third on its debut; omg, what can be done here? ….I suggest a fund be established immediately to aid the suffering masterpiece. The last thing we want to experience is a lowering of appreciation or enthusiasm for reality shows, especially the more banal and low grade ones, so important to the new major drive towards relevance and accessibility of programming.
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We saw viewers turning away from renovation shows this year. It might be the start of a tidal wave against “reality tv”. People wanting quality tv not the rubbish dished up to viewers.
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Trouble is, broadcasters can no longer afford the costs of high quality drama with their current advertising revenue… it’s a vicious downward cycle…
High quality content is essentially niche by today’s standards, and so is attached to premium offerings (where the likes of Netflix et al are doing so well).
The nature of *broad*cast is that distributes the same thing, at the same specific time, to everyone – so it’s appeal has to be *broad* in nature, coupled with the low quality, targeted, high-wastage, low-engagement, poorly-measured, low-value advertising is losing out to the new methods of people accessing content and brands accessing consumers.
Broadcasters’ don’t have many options left, and sadly whilst they should be thinking meaningfully about how to generate more revene from what they’ve got – they’re all distracted by live-streaming online (and probably VR any minute) – both fools errands.
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@Gravity, Bachelor, HYBPA managed to grow audience, Downton is up this year on last season.
Really think they need to change the title to Agreed to be Married at First Sight (ATBMAFS!!)
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Gogglebox is awesome – funny how a show about people watching TV can be so entertaining
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