• Seven maintains narrow lead over Nine, but Nine again claims key demos
• My Kitchen Rules #1 network show, Married hotter in Sydney & Melbourne
• Academy Awards live telecast pulls afternoon crowd of 400,000 on Nine
It is starting to look like My Kitchen Rules is going to have to get used to Married At First Sight breathing down its neck and at times overrunning it. The two reality formats were again close together last night with MKR just 19,000 viewers ahead across the five metro markets.
However, Married At First Sight was the winner in the markets that matter most – Sydney and Melbourne.
And while Seven again was the winner all-people for the night, Married At First Sight ranked #1 in the key demos in the 7.30pm shootout.
TEN’s I’m A Celebrity ranked third in the key demos except for 16-39 where it was narrowly edged into fourth spot by Bride and Prejudice.
Seven
Home and Away started its new week on 771,000, trailing both ABC News and A Current Affair. The soapie had a week eight average of 751,000.
My Kitchen Rules saw South Australian cousins Lama and Sarah in their instant kitchen turning out some shocking dishes. They peaked at five out of 10 which they got from both guest judges Colin and Darren for their cheese and spinach fatayer entrée. Their main lamb kafta was a shocker and they ended the night with scores of just two out of 10 for their dessert. The Monday audience of 1.12m was pretty good considering the quality of the food, but it was down on 1.36m from a week prior.
Bride and Prejudice then did 714,000 after two outings last week did 731,000 (Monday) and 712,000 (Wednesday).
Nine
A Current Affair started its week with the much-promoted Malcolm Naden confessions, which did 776,000 and caused some grief amongst the families of the victims, despite the program notifying some of them it was planned. ACA had an average of 739,000 last week.
Married At First Sight was on 1.10m for the second of its three episodes this week, up a fraction on the previous Monday’s 1.09m.
House Husbands then did 634,000, after 625,000 a week earlier.
In the afternoon the Oscars telecast was shown live on Nine and had a metro average of 386,000. In the evening it was repeated on 9Gem with 171,000 watching. The live audience was close to last year’s 400,000, but the evening repeat was down from 248,000 in 2016.
TEN
I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! got the channel into the top 10 with 778,000. That was up a little on last week’s 761,000.
As a lead-in, The Project 7pm did 610,000, which included much coverage of the shock ending of the Academy Awards telecast and an interview with Tziporah Malkah, who continues to deliver for the broadcaster even after being voted out of the Celebrity camp.
Later in the evening Whose Line Is It Anyway? did 280,000 after 291,000 last week.
ABC
ABC News managed to win the 7pm timeslot with 824,000.
7.30 was next best with 652,000 followed by Australian Story on 553,000.
Four Corners did 504,000 and the audience lifted to 540,000 for Media Watch where the news stories included Donald Trump and A Current Affair.
SBS
Michael Mosley: Trust Me, I’m A Doctor was best on 197,000.
SBS News did 146,000 at 6.30pm while Date My Race at 8.30pm could manage just 110,000.