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Married at First Sight claims “Australia’s New #1 Program”

Ratings: There's been a war of words over who can claim to Australia's #1 show. And it just took another turn.

The battle over which reality show is number one has been brewing in recent weeks.

So far, Married at First Sight has twice beaten MKR in 5 city metro Overnight averages, but on each occasion MKR drew more with regional viewers. After last year’s famous legal battle over whether Sunrise or Today could claim to be “Australia’s #1 breakfast show”, Seven has similarly been able to maintain MKR was also #1.

But today Nine has claimed MAFS as “Australia’s New #1 Program” after it won the timeslot last night in both metro and in metro +regional, with Seven forced to retreat on its claim.

For the record in metro & regional numbers MAFS pulled 1.549m viewers and MKR was 1.534m. Both were pipped by Seven News on 1.613m -which may trigger yet another stoush if we’re not careful.

Elsewhere last night ABC took a hit at 7:30 when it pulled just 439,000 viewers, down on last Tuesday’s 575,000.

800 Words, Travel Guides and NCIS were all down.

Seven network won Tuesday with 30.5% then Nine 29.6%, TEN 18.8%, ABC 14.7% and SBS 6.4%.

Seven News was best for Seven with 1.05m / 912,000 viewers, with My Kitchen Rules also on 1.05m. Home and Away (736,000), 800 Words (639,000) and The Chase (618,000 / 387,000) followed. Bones was 245,000.

Married at First Sight was #1 for Nine with 1.09m viewers followed by Nine News (912,000 / 912,000), A Current Affair (836,000), Travel Guides (563,000) and Hot Seat (439,000 / 251,000). Schwarzenegger The Celebrity Apprentice was just 190,000.

I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here led for TEN with 727,000 viewers. The Project was 540,000 / 334,000, TEN Eyewitness News was 474,000, NCIS was 436,000 and NCIS: LA was 333,000.

ABC News (746,000), 7:30 (469,000), Ice Wars (393,000), Outback ER (321,000) and Human Universe with Brian Cox (258,000).

On SBS it was Great Continental Railway Journeys (307,000), Insight (234,000), Dateline (139,000) and SBS World News (125,000).

Shaun the Sheep showed up multichannels again with 225,000.

Sunrise: 306,000
Today: 278,000
ABC News Breakfast: 105,000 /

OzTAM Overnights: Tuesday 28 February 2017

18 Responses

  1. The 7:.30 report drop in viewers could be because the 7:00pm news has been starting up to 10 mins late, often following a seemingly endless series of program ads. At least the commercials can get their main bulletins to start on time. If I start time-shifting the 7:00 news I’ll certainly be skipping the ads.

  2. Not being big fan of both programmes but looking at the ratings more closely between these two programmes it seems MAFS is winning where it counts in the three big markets Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane . It appears Adelaide and Perth viewers with the rating boxes will always favour MKR which actually makes it closer race than it really is

    1. “…makes it closer race than it really is”

      Rubbish. It’s as close as it is. You don’t get to exclude sections of data just because they don’t fit with your preconceived ideas of what should be.

  3. I think because MKR was greed and added a extra round this year and last year it goes on way to long and viewers are getting bored with it

  4. One thing is for sure, MAFS is performing way ahead of expectations and MKR well below. And MAFS is winning well in the demographics. I think the MKR format has become very stale, whereas the revised MAFS has a fresh appeal and thus attracting a bigger audience than before. This is a huge turnaround for Nine who were struggling this time last year.

  5. The difference between MKR and MAFS is only 1%, which is well within the Margin of Error for OzTam. Didn’t Nine promote MAFS as “the biggest show of the year” back before it even started? On YouTube at /watch?v=5pPge4fACxA
    These 7 and 9 claims about who has the biggest are so childish.

  6. David, how can Nine be using that when both season’s aren’t anywhere near finished yet?

    Seven (like all networks should base it off) use the season average (metro) to claim “Australia’s #1 program”.

    So far, MKR is still well in front of Married in season average, remembering Married has only beaten MKR three times and Married’s first week or two were below 1m.

      1. Thank you for the behind the scenes, always great to see as much insight as possible.

        But couldn’t Nine have just said “#1 program last night”?

        Rather than twisting it to sound like it is Australia’s #1 show.

  7. Both 800 Words and House Husbands added a never before mentioned brother in the latest episode. There’s got to be some secret sit com book they’re getting their ideas from.

    1. In 800 Words, George’s brother Terry was, in fact, first referenced in Series 1 Episode 1. He’s also been referenced in at least two other episodes before actually making his appearance.

      1. They are seriously making the show up as they go along. All of a sudden Arlo is interested in cooking. Big Mac doesn’t want his granddaughter moving in with the Turners but doesn’t bat an eyelid when she runs off with Shay’s ex. The continuity on the series is zero.

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