Married At First Sight premiere knocks My Kitchen Rules off its perch

The big story from Monday night wasn’t the small rise in the audience for the 2019 launch of Nine’s Married At First Sight (MAFS) at 1.32 million (from 1.27 million in 2018) — it was the much larger fall in the size of the national audience for Seven’s My Kitchen Rules (MKR). MKR averaged 1.21 million, down from more than 1.7 million a year ago. After the weak start to the year for the Today show and its high profile revamp, Nine needs some good news and the confident start to this year for MAFS will help.

Seven won total people but Nine won the main channels. The morning shows (post 9am) were boosted by the holiday, as always happens. Seven’s The Morning Show pulled more viewers at 291,000 than Today did with 282,000. In regional areas Seven’s 6pm News led with 521,000, thenSeven News/Today Tonight with 512,000, MKR was third with 400,000, the 7pm ABC News was next with 338,000 and the 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia with 325,000.

Network channel share:

1. Seven (33.6%)
2. Nine (30.1%)
3. Ten (16.8%)
4. ABC (14.9%)
5. SBS (4.6%)

Network main channels:

1. Nine (22.4%)
2. Seven (21.6%)
3. Ten (11.6%)
4. ABC (11.3%)
5. SBS ONE (2.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. 7mate (5.8%)
2. GO (4.2%)
3. 7TWO (3.9%)
4. 10 Bold (3.3%)
5. ABC Kids/Comedy, 7flix, Gem (1.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Seven News — 1.545million
2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.477 million
3. Married At First Sight (Nine) — 1.321 million
4. Nine/NBN News 6.30  — 1.223 million
5. Nine/NBN News — 1.219 million
6. MKR (Seven) — 1.218 million
7. 7pm ABC News — 981,000
8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 956,000
9. I’m A Celebrity (Ten) — 944,000
10. The Good Doctor (Seven) — 940,000

Top metro programs:

1. Seven News– 1.024 million
2. MAFS (Nine) — 1.003 million

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Seven News — 1.024 million
2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 966,000
3. Nine News 6.30 —935,000
4. Nine News— 931,000
5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 710,000
6. 7pm ABC News – 642,000
7. 7.30 (ABC) — 584,000
8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 438,000
9. 10 News First — 433,000
10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 203,000

Morning (National) TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) — 406,000 (metro: 246,000)
2. Today (Nine) — 282,000 (Metro: 199,000)
3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 291,000
4. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 222,000
5. Mornings (Nine) — 203,000
6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 110,000

Top five pay TV programs:

1. BBL (FoxCricket) — 147,000
2. Between The Innings (Fox Cricket) — 126,000
3. Outlander (Fox Showcase) — 91,000
4. BBL (Fox Cricket) — 74,000
5. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 57,000