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1.75m: Ratings gold for Married at First Sight finale

Ratings: Bigger than the Australian Open, Nine's juggernaut draws to a close and everybody collapses.

They will be popping the bubbly at Nine today with Married at First Sight‘s final episode pulling out all stops with a whopping 1.75m viewers.

To compare, more people in the 5 city metro watched revelations about sext messages than viewed Roger Federer win the Australian Open. That’s some sexting. No surprises it was the show’s largest ever crowd, at over 500,000 each in both Melbourne & Sydney.

It also gave 9Life it’s biggest ever audience for Talking Married at 342,000 viewers at 9pm -more than watched TEN or SBS at 7:30pm.

Doubtless other networks will be pleased the juggernaut is over. Dwarfed by comparison were MKR on 936,000, 7:30 on 595,000 and Bondi Rescue on 273,000.

ABC’s new comedy Sando debuted at 427,000, down on the Squinters debut of 471,000 whilst Safe Harbour is barely afloat now at 138,000.

Seven News, ACA and The Chase won their slots.

Nine network won the night with 38.0% then Seven 28.8%, ABC 15.6%, TEN 11.3% and SBS 6.3%.

Married at First Sight was easily #1 at 1.75m viewers for Nine then Nine News (921,000 / 913,000), A Current Affair (901,000), Hot Seat (480,000 / 300,000), The Footy Show (363,000 in 3 cities) and 20 to ONE (302,000 in 2 cities).

Seven News (951,000 / 949,000) led for Seven then My Kitchen Rules (936,000), Home and Away (698,000) and The Chase (535,000 / 343,000). Movie: Salt was 283,000 and The Front Bar returned with 187,000 in 3 cities.

ABC News (757,000), Hard Quiz and Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell (both 608,000), 7:30 (595,000), Sando (427,000), Insert Name Here (235,000) and Think Tank (207,000) comprised ABC’s night.

The Project (442,000 / 266,000) was best on TEN followed by TEN Eyewitness News (428,000), Family Feud (284,000) and Bondi Rescue (273,000 / 264,000). The Graham Norton Show pulled 234,000 and This is Us was just 135,000.

On SBS it was Great Continental Railway Journeys (245,000), SBS World News (146,000), Safe Harbour (138,000) and The Good Fight (103,000).

Talking Married was big on multichannels with 342,000.

Today: 246,000
Sunrise: 253,000
News Breakfast: 104,000 / 48,000

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 21 March 2018

23 Responses

  1. Thank goodness it is over – it went on and on forever.

    Interesting that they have changed society attitude over time. Compared to when this show started, there are very few people now commenting on how damaging this show is to what people now expect of relationships. Lies, swapping, sexting, sleeping around, betrayal, and basically just causing others great hurt, are now just accepted because it is “guiltily addictive” and “innocent fun” – when it is not happening to you.

  2. 9 should hopefully learn from the mistakes all channels have made in the past (and the present…MKR) and resist the urge to make MAFS season longer. It is just the right length (and I mean “just”) …it almost falls into recap mode near the end. Reality is not everyone’s cup of tea…fair enough…but they must be very pleased to have scored this cast this season. Good casting, but also good luck.

  3. Something I picked-up on David, 9Life had a mammoth audience (usually only seen when AFL is moved to 7mate, Socceroos, blockbuster movie when nothing else is on or Olympics/Comm Games secondary feeds). But why wasn’t 9Life’s share higher, shouldn’t it have been something like 5% or 6%? Which makes me wonder how 9Life’s programs before Talking Married and after The Dress Atlanta rated? Obviously very badly. For the channel to still be beaten by 7Two, even though two programs on 9Life over 1hr+ averaged close to 300k-ish.

    Interesting.

  4. I don’t get why people watch MAFS, they get married but legally don’t get married? Isn’t that just a normal soap opera?? I don’t get it…

    1. I had to endure the last 10 minutes of it last night and I was hipnotised…..I fell asleep. What a load of rubbish. I guess people watch to compare their own lives to what goes on in this show. I believe the ratings are so high because viewers falls asleep from the boredom and forget to change the channel.

    2. Not being legally married means that the participants get to walk away scot free at anytime without any financial consequences, having enjoyed Channel Nine pay tens of thousands of dollars organising a dream wedding, huge reception dinner and a one week honeymoon at a fancy holiday paradise somewhere in the world! It’s therefore not surprising that thousands of people apply to join the show every year. The price they pay however is to be put in contrived situations that heightens tensions between themselves as well as with the other couples – hence the high drama and ratings. Another tried and true secret to reality television is to choose a range of interesting people – including those you fall in love with, those you hate and those who are downright wacky – all present in this year’s MAFS!

  5. Any reason why This is Us was moved to 9:30pm? I know the ratings weren’t good but that is just too late. Move it to Channel 11 at 7:30 so loyal fans can see it and not revert to streaming.

    1. How does TIU competing against Graham Norton, when both shows would be crushed by the MAFS final anyway, help Ten? Timeshift it if you don’t want to watch it when it is on or stream it. More people are recording or streaming it than watching it live. I’ll be watching it around that time tonight, because there nothing on I want to watch tonight, except The Bridge during which I will be sleeping.

  6. Paradise is also promoted beyond belief, the problem is with so few watching 10 it might all be wasted. Perhaps they should buy some spots on MAFS 🙂 Poor 10 if it flops.

      1. Happy to be corrected, but as I recall the promos started in Dec prior to Christmas, and continue every channel every break till today, 1 week from april, so lets say a rounded up 5 months of promotion for this “show”, viewer numbers down etc etc….I would suggest that its not so much viewer fatigue but promo fatigue? I was sick of it by the end of the 1st tennis tournament…

        1. That’s about how I feel about Bachelor in Paradise at the moment. Over it before it begins. Lengthy promos and pop ups and water marks on all 3 Ten network channels and ads in every ad break (and that’s from leaving Ten on live for about an hour a night – kids love Bondi Rescue).

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