Sophie Monk found true love in the grand finale of The Bachelorette Australia last night, with 2.21 million Australians tuning in to watch her reveal that Stu Laundy had captured her heart.
The Final Decision episode drew a national peak audience of 2.39 million and capped the most successful season ever of either The Bachelorette Australia or The Bachelor Australia on TEN.
Earlier last night, The Bachelorette Australia Grand Finale drew 1.75 million viewers nationally and a peak audience of 2.35 million.
In the capital cities, The Final Decision attracted 1.64 million viewers and peaked at 1.77 million. It dominated its timeslot, ranking #1 in people 25 to 54 with a commercial share of 60.4%, #1 in under 55s (61.7% commercial share) and #1 in total people (52.6% commercial share).
The Bachelorette Australia Grand Finale had 1.32 million capital city viewers and peaked at 1.74 million. Its commercial shares were 52.5% in 25 to 54s, 53.4% in under 55s and 43.1% in total people.
The conclusion of this year’s series dominated social media, ranking as the #1 television program on Facebook and Twitter last night with 28,100 social media interactions. It trended #1 worldwide on Twitter last night and #1 nationally in Australia.
The 2017 series had an average national consolidated audience of 1.35 million, up 43% on last year, and an average capital city audience of 1.04 million. It reached 6.92 million capital city viewers and 2.89 million regional viewers.
The Bachelorette Australia this year ranked #1 in its timeslot in 25 to 54s, under 55s and total people.
In the capital cities, the series’ total audience average – which includes television and online catch-up viewing, plus television encores – was 1.21 million, up 57% on 2016.
This season of The Bachelorette became the number one television program in Australia in terms of online catch-up viewing, averaging an additional 170,000 viewers per episode. The episode aired on 5 October 2017 added 189,000 viewers from online catch-up viewing, a new record for a single episode of any television series.
On tenplay, The Bachelorette Australia recorded more than 17.8 million video segment views – up 62% on the 2016 season – more than 5 million video starts (up 62%) and 1.2 million video unique visitors (up 78%).
On social media, the series generated an average total weekly reach on Facebook of 4.6 million, up 10% on last year. The online only spin-off series, The Bachelorette Unpacked, had an average Facebook reach of 466,000 per episode and average views of 250,000 per episode.
Network Ten Chief Content Officer, Beverley McGarvey, said: “The combination of Sophie, romance, excitement, humour, love and amazing dates had all of Australia captivated by The Bachelorette Australia this year.
“Our sincere thanks and congratulations go to Sophie and Stu, who leave the show with our very best wishes for the future.
“Thank you also to The Bachelorette Australia’s devoted viewers, to our sponsors – Maybelline New York, One Night In Mexico, Mitsubishi Motors Australia, DAILIES TOTAL1, eHarmony, Sukin and Underworks – to the team at Warner Bros International Television Production Australia, to our executive producer Hilary Innes and to everyone at Ten who worked on the show,” she said.
“Next year will be a big one for Bachelor fans, with new seasons of The Bachelor Australia and The Bachelorette Australia and our exciting new event series, Bachelor In Paradise.”