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MasterChef finale barely scrapes 1 million viewers

Ratings: MasterChef finale ends on an all-time low, beaten by two talent shows on rival networks.

winner Emma DeanJust four years ago more than 3 million Australians watched as Julie Goodwin was named the inaugural MasterChef champion.

Last night barely 1 million saw Emma Dean win the 2013 title.

1.05m watched The Winner Announced segment of the show and only 921,000 watched the bulk of the show, Finale Night.

These are very disappointing numbers for TEN and not even season highs for the show. With the exception of a few nights of sunshine, the fifth season has struggled against heated competition. Yet it is still one of TEN’s best performers. The network has wisely opted to rest the show for nine months.

TEN Programming Chief Beverley McGarvey told TV Tonight, “For a show that is in its 10th season, including spin offs such as Junior MasterChef and MasterChef The Professionals, we are pleased so many people still embrace the show.

“It is definitely our intention to grow MasterChef Australia’s numbers next year. It is still a great show and we like what it represents. It is about dream fulfillment.

“There is plenty of life left in MasterChef Australia. We are looking forward to a new, fresh version in 2014 that will appeal to the loyal MasterChef fans as well as new viewers,” she said.

Talent shows took glory again last night as The X Factor topped the night with 1.36m viewers.

Seven network was 32.9%, then Nine 29.4%, TEN 18.6%, ABC 15.1% and SBS 3.9%.

Next for Seven was Seven News (1.3m) then Bones (1.02m) and Castle (715,000 / 435,000).

Nine News (1.28m) was best for Nine. Australia’s Got Talent also beat MasterChef on 1.12m viewers. Next was 60 Minutes (985,000) but Underbelly: Squizzy petered out with just 489,000 / 381,000.

MasterChef aside, TEN’s other numbers were Modern Family (497,000 / 370,000), TEN News (355,000), The Simpsons (306,000) and Ripper Street was just 237,000.

ABC News (857,000) was best for ABC1 then Dream Build (719,000), Grand Designs (687,000), The Time of our Lives (665,000), Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippy and Compass (both 429,000).

On SBS ONE it was Forbidden Tomb of Genghis Khan (257,000), World News Australia (215,000), The Observer Effect (104,000) and 9/11: The Day that Changed the World (84,000).

The Big Bang Theory (279,000) topped multichannels.

Insiders: 194,000 / 110,000 / 46,000.
The Bolt Report: 125,000 / 80,000

OzTAM Overnights: Sunday 1 September 2013.

20 Responses

  1. Had been watching the series but after Rishi was eliminated by judges (in very poor decision) I switched off. Ridiculous he wasn’t in the finals. I’m a better cook than Emma, I suspect many of us are.

  2. @ditto – I think Underbelly’s fall from grace can be explained by something much simpler – it is unrelentingly awful. Maybe the half hour I saw of it was unrepresentative of the whole show, but it seemed to consist of bogans in suits calling each other “f****n p****s”, then some boobies being flashed around, then someone getting beaten up or shot.

    And to think the AWG nominated it for an AWGIE. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. Sigh.

  3. Think nine has really dropped the ball with its scheduling. If it had not been greedy and left big brother stripped at 7 weeknights with a 630 Sunday night show rolling into 60 minutes at 730 then into underbelly and then Australia’s got talent for Tuesday and Wednesday night. As for ten they should be applauded as the survey showed for keeping shows in consistent timeslots but something needs to be done or the brand will be irrepairable. And no one should want that

  4. Oh ok. Do you think the changing timeslot is the reason for Underbelly’s 600% fall.
    I guess my point was that with Nine’s great momentum over the last two years and TEN’s horrible decline… perhaps the mighty fall of Nine’s once flagship brand is worth at least as much of a mention..

    1. The fall is due to a number of factors, including UB fatigue, timeslots, and making Squizzy too light. I’ve filed on UB poor figures previously, and if you check yesterday’s Fairfax newspapers you will see I am on record as saying how badly it got shuffled around because of reality shows. I’d say if MC wasn’t on last night then UB would have been the lead angle, but as other media have noted today, the story was all about MC.

  5. God I just have to lol @ Ten. The whole line up everyday is just all over the place! Does anyone remember ten saying at the beginning of the yr they have a full slate of new programming this yr! But all we have seen are repeats, shows in the wrong places, i’m so sick to death of Modern family now I don’t even think new eps will entice me back.

  6. I think you could have also pointed out a bit stronger that Underbelly ‘petering’ out on 391,000…. is quite a fall from grace when it was receiving its 2.7millions… in fact it’s a much bigger drop percentage wise!!
    And yes it was on late last night, but with 1m watching the MChef winner announced at 9:30pm… and only 480,000 watching Underbelly at same time… but any excuse to bag TEN of course.

  7. Interestingly enough, The Professionals finale had similar ratings.

    I found that version to be the superior of the two this year. It had a majority of likable and talented contestants, can’t really say the same for the amateur version. They need to revisit what made S1-3 great.

  8. Serves Ten right for oversaturating MasterChef, but perhaps a Wednesday finale would have fared better. Those results don’t hold much promise for The Bachelor next Sunday.

  9. You can tell Nine is just going through the motions in burning off Underbelly with an extra episode last night slipped in with little fanfare.

    One more double ep once Power Games is finished and it will be done with.

    Ten only has three more Ripper Street’s to go – and on those numbers it won’t be 8.30 primetime on a Sunday.

  10. What an absolute disaster – it shall be interesting if Management are willing to invest in another event format.

    Certainly Murdoch has avoided anything like that in the last few years focusing on small poorly produced formats that have failed.

    Time will tell…

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