TEN broke up the ratings party last night that sees Nine and Seven usually sharing primary channel leadership. The series-three final of The Bachelor saw 1.48m tuning in for the surprise announcement of the winner while 1.22m watched the final episode. That is a new high for Bachelor audiences and it pushed TEN into first place.
TEN was a big winner also in Sydney with a share of 23.6% although it had to settle for second place in Melbourne, 2.2 points behind Nine, but well ahead Seven.
The channel’s only better network Thursdays this year in terms of share were the first and last weeks of MasterChef.
Close to 400,000 watched the final episode of TEN’s dating reality show in Sydney and Melbourne.
The show improved on the series finals for both previous seasons:
The Bachelor finals
2013: 1.18m/1.01m
2014: 1.40m/1.02m
2015: 1.48m/1.22m
In 2013 there was a special After The Final Rose episode the night after the final which did well too. This year that programming gem was given to Studio 10 this morning which had a special bachelor reunion edition.
The Bachelor ended so suddenly last night that viewers suddenly found themselves in the Special Victims Unit. 476,000 stayed on to watch the episode, up from 420,000 last week.
Hosted by Osher Günsberg, the show is also qualifying as a multiplatform ratings sensation. Yesterday was the biggest video viewing day since the launch of tenplay.com.au.
There were 1.33 million video views yesterday alone, which beat the previous record (July 31, 2014) by 11% – 66% (872k) of yesterday’s VSVs were from The Bachelor Australia.
Last night was big for the program on social too. The show, produced by Endemol Shine Australia, was the #1 program on Twitter, with an 86% share of Twitter TV impressions (7 million impressions) and a 70% share of the Twitter TV audience.
#TheBachelorAU trended at #1 nationally on Twitter last night, #1 in every Australian capital city and #2 worldwide.
Network Ten chief programming officer Beverley McGarvey said: “Last night was the perfect end to a great season of The Bachelor Australia.
“We are delighted for Sam and Snezana, and wish them all the very best for a wonderful future together.
“We are also very happy that so many Australians engaged with the show across television, online and social media. The Bachelor Australia is a phenomenon that keeps growing every year. Now we – like the rest of Australia – cannot wait for the start of The Bachelorette Australia next Wednesday, 7.30pm, on TEN.”