MAFS reunion attracts 866,000 metro viewers, while 896,000 tune into I’m a Celeb’s final moments
The I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! finale brought an average of 784,000 metro viewers to Ten last night, behind the 866,000 who watched the first part of Nine’s Married at First Sight reunion special.
But while both aired at 7:30pm, the MAFS reunion finished up just before Abbie Chatfield was crowned the ‘Queen of the Jungle’, allowing an additional 112,000 viewers across the five capital cities to tune into the final moments of I’m a Celebrity, which had 896,000 metro viewers compared to the rest of the episode’s 784,000.
I’m a Celebrity benefitted from the finish time of the MAFS reunion
Both shows reached more than a million average viewers with the regions factored in. I’m a Celebrity’s winners announcement had 1.24 million all up, and 1.08 million across the episode, while MAFS landed on 1.14 million nationally.
The key advertising demographics were also pulled between the two shows, with the I’m a Celebrity winners announcement topping the 18-49s and 25-54s age groups, and the MAFS reunion the preference for the 16-39s bracket.
The second part of the MAFS reunion will air tonight
Ten Viacom CBS’ chief content officer and executive vice president, Beverley McGarvey, said the result indicates “that the landscape of summer viewing has changed forever”.
I’m a Celebrity’s “dominance across all platforms, in its time slot in total people, under 50s and in all key demographics, night after night proved unrivalled,” she said.
“Achieving its highest ever commercial shares and achieving its biggest total audience since 2017, it cemented itself as the #1 summer entertainment television event.”
Chief sales officer Rod Prosser added that the format was “lucrative” for advertisers and offered better sponsorship opportunities than sports programming.
“No other show can deliver the scale and creativity of integration that I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! has delivered this season. It is one of the most malleable formats on Australian television for sponsors to work with devoid of the constraints associated with some sporting codes,” he said.
Prosser thanked sponsors BCF, Bedshed, Carnival, McDonald’s, Mitsubishi, Origin, Oz Lotto, Plush, Youfoodz, Youi and others for giving the network the opportunity to “turbo charge” brands with content that is “relevant and authentic”.
While Nine and Ten tussled for primetime viewers, the Big Bash League on Seven straggled. The best rating segment of the finals qualifier between the Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder was the innings break with 511,000 metro viewers, ahead of the second session, with 496,000, and the first, which pulled 488,000. The post game coverage, meanwhile, had 450,000.
Despite competition from Ten, and Seven News once again topping the ratings with just under a million viewers (992,000), Nine easily won the night with a 32.6% network share. Seven finished on 25.6%, and Ten on 20.9%. Ten was also in last place on a channel share basis; 14.6% of viewers watched Channel Ten, compared to Seven’s 19.2% and Nine’s dominant 24.5%.
10 Bold was the most-watched multi-channel of the night, with a 3.9% share thanks to NCIS repeats.
Both Seven and Ten will be hoping to topple Nine tonight, premiering Holey Moley and The Amazing Race, respectively. But while, initially, the two launches were set to be each other’s biggest competition, they are now up against the second part of the MAFS reunion on Nine.
The special episode was supposed to air on Sunday night, a week after last night’s first part. But a Nine Spokesperson said that “after viewing the reunion episodes, we felt it was a better viewing experience to have them air sequentially over two consecutive nights”.
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Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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BBL
Big Bash League
I'm a Celeb
I'm a celebrity...get me out of here
MAFS
MAFS reunion
Married at First Sight
TV ratings
