TV Ratings March 11: Nine wins third successive Sunday, MAFS pulls over 1.3m

Mediaweek editor James Manning looks at last night’s TV ratings.

• Nine’s third successive Sunday win: Seven recovers from Spartan obstacle course
• Nine’s Married At First Sight posts fourth successive 1.3m+ Sunday crowd
• Fiona, Shannon and Danny to battle it out on TEN’s I’m A Celebrity final tonight

After Seven started the year like an unstoppable steam train, Nine has steadily recovered, winning the past two weeks and last night claiming its third successive Sunday victory.

Nine was well ahead along the east coast capitals while Seven was more competitive in Adelaide and managed to post a win in Perth.

Seven’s share was up 4.0 thanks to My Kitchen Rules returning to the Sunday 7pm timeslot.

TEN had its second-best Sunday share in four weeks. However, despite offering part one of the I’m A Celebrity… final, the share was down week-on-week.

Seven

My Kitchen Rules returned to the Sunday night schedule, replacing Australian Spartan, with Curtis Stone joining the show as group one cooked at a Kids Day Sports Challenge. Teams had one hour to prep and cook, and an additional 45 minutes to cook and serve. The kids and group two were asked to vote for their favourite. The weakest team was Stella and Jazzey, who are headed to the Elimination House. MKR lifted the Seven 7pm Sunday audience week-on-week from 524,000 to 858,000.

Denham Hitchcock was reporting the Sunday Night story about the Gold Coast cheerleader Bree Robinson who plunged to her death from a high-rise balcony. Hitchcock interviewed the boyfriend, whom some people suspect of being involved. The episode did 558,000 – up from 488,000 a week ago when the lead-in was Australian Spartan.

Crimes The Shook The World then did 315,000 followed by Blindspot on 92,000.

Nine

The seven remaining couples attended the final commitment ceremony on Married At First Sight before heading home to decide their futures. It was also the contestants’ last opportunity to speak with the relationship experts. Dean and Tracey continued to deliver for the network. Dean started the episode explaining his way around comments made on last week’s boys night out. “I didn’t mean any disrespect,” he told Tracey. The episode was short of the 1.5m on the previous two Sundays thanks to Australian Spartan, but it still delivered over 1.3m.

60 Minutes had an update on the notorious Daruk Boys Home and the program spoke with the only survivor of the Waco cult. The audience of 653,000 was down on 800,000 last week, yet still ahead of Sunday Night.

Born To Kill? Class Of Evil then did 241,000 followed by Killer On The Line on 170,000.

TEN

The Project supercharged its panel last night with Henry Rollins joining Lisa Wilkinson, Hamish Macdonald and Tommy Little. The episode started on 227,000 and then lifted to 347,000 at 7pm.

Episode 30 was the penultimate episode of season four of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! The audience last night of 549,000 and then 658,000 compares to the penultimate episode on this Sunday last year with 706,000 and lifted to 850,000. The three remaining celebrities ahead of the final episode tonight are Shannon Noll, Fiona O’Loughlin and Danny Green.

NCIS then did 397,000 followed by SEAL Team on 208,000.

ABC

Kevin McCloud was in County Down in Northern Ireland where he watched the construction of a wonderful home on the site of an old barn. The show did 558,000 after 620,000 last week.

The second episode of Howards End drew 471,000 following its launch a week ago on 572,000.

SBS

Episode six of Eight Days That Made Rome looked at the death of Emperor Nero, who took his own life. The audience of 157,000 was the channel’s biggest last night.

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore had his Bowling For Columbine, which looked at the US gun culture, screened at 8.30pm with 146,000.

Earlier in the night SBS World News did 155,000.

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