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Bachelor in Paradise pulls 539,000 viewers for Alex and Richie reunion episode

Ten’s much-promoted reunion between 2016’s Bachelor Richie Strahan and his ex-girlfriend Alex Nation on last night’s Bachelor in Paradise drew 539,000 metro viewers for Ten.

Ten had been promoting the episode as the uncut and raw story Australia had to see, noting it was not going to edit or manipulate the footage any way.

Speaking to Mumbrella ahead of the episode, host Osher Günsberg said the way the showdown would be broadcast was an innovation for Australian television.

“We are the first people in the history of the franchise to have a hero, a Bachelor, and the woman that he chose come back to Paradise. And we’ve seen enough reality now to know that editing happens, and some conversation can be missed, but we’re going to show the conversation between Alex and Richie unedited. And to do that, we’re going to split the screen, which nobody has really done in primetime,” he said.

The heavily hyped reunion helped Bachelor in Paradise top the key advertising demographics of those aged 16 to 39, and those in the 18 to 49 age bracket.

In the slightly older 25 to 54 demographic, however, Seven’s My Kitchen Rules took out the win, with Bachelor in Paradise placing second.

In the overall primetime entertainment battle, My Kitchen Rules was also victorious, with 885,000 metro viewers.

Nine split its entertainment offerings, showing RBT in some cities and Paramedics in others. RBT had 243,000 metro viewers, while Paramedics pulled 271,000.

With the addition of regional figures, My Kitchen Rules remained on top in terms of entertainment, with 1.337m viewers. Bachelor in Paradise had a total of 682,000 across the country, while on Nine RBT had 316,000 and Paramedics had 404,000.

The most-watched show of the evening was Seven News, which had 1.022m for the first half hour, and 1.053m for the second half hour (which broadcasts as Today Tonight in some cities), leading into My Kitchen Rules.

In addition, Seven won the breakfast battle, with Sunrise securing 273,000 metro viewers, well ahead of Nine’s struggling Today, which had just 186,000.

The success of Seven’s news offering, combined with My Kitchen Rules, and the absence of Nine’s Married at First Sight, helped Seven take out the win.

It had a 23.6% audience share, compared to Nine’s 15.5%, ABC’s 13.9%, Ten’s 11.1% and SBS’ 4.3%.

On a network level, Seven was also victorious, with 32,1%. Nine had 24.2%, while Ten edged ahead of ABC with 18.7% and 18.3% respectively. The SBS Network had 6.6%.

10 Bold was the most-watched multi-channel, with 5.1% of the audience.

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