Married at First Sight MAFS finale
A still from the Married at First Sight finale (Image: Nine)

Married at First Sight finished up with its lowest season finale audience since 2017. The 1.81 million last night was still strong, but lower than the 1.95 million for 2020 and the 2.44 million for 2019 (back when it was considered “naughty” to be watching this load of rubbish). That’s a drop of 25% in two years. Is it wearing out its welcome?

An estimated 1.39 million watched in the metro markets last night, against 1.47 million in 2020 and 1.85 million in 2019. Yep, more people watched in the five metro markets two years ago than watched nationally last night. The regional audience last night was 418,000 — against 474,000 in 2020 and 590,000 in 2019.

Meanwhile, Seven’s Dancing With The Stars: All Stars battled on last night — 925,000 from 7.30pm (down 109,000 from its opening audience a week earlier) — but the 7pm ABC News (948,000) and the return of Spicks and Specks (953,000) proved too popular. Ten was so weak last night that its main channel share of 5.5% was less than that for SBS (5.8%) on one of the most competitive nights of the week.

Network channel share

  1. Nine (40.4%)
  2. Seven (25.1%)
  3. ABC (15.6)
  4. Ten (11.2%)
  5. SBS (7.7%)

Network main channels

  1. Nine (33.3%)
  2. Seven (17.6%)
  3. ABC (11.7%)
  4. SBS ONE (5.8%)
  5. Ten (5.5%)

Top five digital channels

  1. 7mate (3.9%)
  2. 10 Bold (2.9%)
  3. 7TWO (2.2%)
  4. 9Life, 10 Peach (2.1%)

Top 10 national programs

  1. MAFS (Nine) — 1.816 million
  2. Seven News — 1.554 million
  3. Nine News — 1.375 million
  4. Spics and Specks (ABC) — 953,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 948,000
  6. Dancing With The Stars: All Stars (Seven) — 925,000
  7. 60 Minutes (Nine) —1.148 million
  8. Insiders (ABC, ABC News) — 538,000
  9. Sunday AFL (Seven) — 490,000
  10. Australian Crime Stories (Nine) — 460,000

Top metro programs

  1. MAFS (Nine) — 1.398 million
  2. Seven News — 1.038 million
  3. Nine News — 1.021 million

Metro news and current affairs

  1. Seven News — 1.038 million
  2. Nine News — 1.021 million
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 647,000
  4. 7pm ABC News — 622,000
  5. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 311,000
  6. Ten News First — 285,000
  7. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 283,000
  8. SBS World News — 209,000

Morning (national) TV

  1. Insiders (ABC, ABC TV) — 538,000
  2. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 428,000
  3. Landline (ABC) — 339,000
  4. Weekend Today (Nine) — 319,000
  5. Sports Sunday (Nine) — 197,000
  6. Offsiders (ABC) — 190,000

Top five pay TV programs

  1. NRL: North Qld vs Canterbury (Fox League) — 194,000
  2. NRL: St George vs NZ Warriors (Fox League) — 147,000
  3. AFL: Geelong vs North Melbourne (Fox Footy) — 142,000
  4. Supercars Tasmania Race 8 (Fox Sports) — 127,000
  5. AFL: Adelaide vs Fremantle (Fox Footy) — 123,000