Survivor, Idol and MAFS: Who won the first tentpole clash of the year?
The major face-off between TV tentpole programs has come to a close, with Nine’s reality powerhouse, Married At First Sight (MAFS) proving the crowd favourite over Seven’s Australian Idol and Ten’s Australian Survivor in Q1 programming.
Australian Idol and Australian Survivor wrapped up seasons respectively on Sunday and Monday nights by crowning winners. Meanwhile, MAFS will officially finish next Monday after the reunion dinner, which will conclude two months of relationship dramas.
L-R: Idol’s winner Royston Sagigi-Baira, Survivor’s winner Liz Parnov and Final Vows on MAFS
Before all three shows’ simultaneous launch on 30 January, networks bosses were positive about their respective outlooks. Idol wanted to woo the crowd with “nostalgia”, Survivor had its eyes on younger demos, while MAFS was set to tap into Australia’s obsession with “seeing into other people’s lives” through the reality-based format.
Looking back at metro overnights, MAFS has topped entertainment every night that the show was on. Idol and Survivor had a close race at the beginning, but the latter managed to put some distance between itself and Idol, coming out on top in overnight metro figures every night the pair faced off against each other since 7 February, aside from Sunday night’s Idol finale.
The infographic below shows that Australian Survivor managed to grow its audience as the season progressed, while Idol remained relatively stagnant until the season finale.
All networks have seen varying degrees of audience erosion on linear TV over the past five years. The following graph shows the launch night figures over the past five years for MAFS on Nine and Australian Survivor on Ten.
The last time Australian Idol aired was in 2009 on Ten. As a comparison, The Voice Australia on Seven, which the network brought in 2021, aired to 843,000 metro viewers in 2022 and 1.329 million metro viewers in 2021.
For the Daily Consolidated 7 Total TV Program Ranking currently available for the dates all three shows were aired, MAFS was also the leader in the pack in terms of Total TV viewers and BVOD. However, a larger crowd was catching up with Survivor on national BVOD than Idol.
Speaking on Idol’s performance, a Seven spokesperson pointed to the show’s function in the network’s overall programming: “Australian Idol helped lift Seven’s total TV audience share year-on-year and gave us a more competitive start to the ratings year, which was always the objective.
“Royston was a fantastic winner. Congratulations to him and all our amazing contestants.”
Regarding whether Seven will renew the show, the spokesperson said: “As with any show, we will take a look at its performance in detail and make a decision about a new season later.”
Rod Prosser, chief sales officer at Paramount ANZ (Ten’s parent company), said: “We’re thrilled with the performance of Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains and have seen it go from strength to strength building its audience and fans each week.
“This season we’ve seen unprecedented growth in live stream and BVOD viewers that has seen the national total audiences lift up to 46% with 7-day viewing.
“And the finale winner announcement last night was just outstanding securing 52.8% commercial share in under 50s, beating our competition in the timeslot, achieving the biggest national overnight audience of the season with 898,000 viewers across metro, regional and live stream.”
Hamish Turner, director of 9Now and programming, said: “We are immensely proud of Australia’s number one series Married at First Sight. MAFS is a unique show on the cultural landscape that delivers heart whilst also tapping into the complexities of the modern dating world and relationships.
“We work closely with our production partners at ESA to deliver a show that is both challenging and entertaining. With just one week to go it has seen impressive year-on-year growth and 12 of the episodes have attracted a Total TV audience of over two million Australians.
“The unrivalled storytelling continues to drive conversation across the country and has delivered record share across linear and 9Now.”
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Darcy Song was a reporter at Mumbrella, covering media owners, adtech and social platforms. She left in October 2023.
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