TV Ratings March 12: Nine wins Sunday while MKR slips below 1m viewers

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

MKR

• Nine wins second consecutive Sunday with Married again pulling 1.16m
• It had to happen soon – My Kitchen Rules slips below 1m metro viewers
• Seven’s special Sunday Night Royal Event a winner with 850,000+
• Nazeem Hussain misses out on Celebrity final, penultimate ep does 851,000

Nine has started week 11 with a win courtesy of the second consecutive Sunday audience of 1.16m watching Married At First Sight. The same size audience for two weeks in a row has also delivered Nine a second successive Sunday share of 21.3%.

The Nine series produced by Endemol Shine Australia has challenged Seven’s My Kitchen Rules like no other program ever has. Married At First Sight screened three times last week and those episodes were the three most-watched programs of the week. If the momentum continues it could do something similar again this week.

Seven’s Sunday share however was its best in three weeks. The growth lift came later in the night from Melissa Doyle and the special edition of Sunday Night remembering Princess Diana. The show ranked #1 in its slot after the reality shows wrapped.

Meanwhile My Kitchen Rules dipped below 1m viewers for the first time ever, continuing the downward trend for 2017.

The penultimate episode of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! attracted 833,000 with the final three to find out who wins tonight.

Seven

Seven News Sunday was a winner in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

My Kitchen Rules featured a Kitchen HQ cook-off. The atmosphere inside the kitchen that features toward the end of each season lacks much of the excitement of the home kitchens, but the appearance again of the all-time best performing cooks Amy and Tyson should have satisfied some viewers. They managed to narrowly avoid elimination however, scoring just eight more than the “humble home cooks” Damo and Caz. Judges Colin, Manu and Pete awarded Amy and Tyson just one point more than their scores for Damo and Caz.

The Sunday episode did 961,000, the lowest audience ever, and trailed Married At First Sight in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Seven improved its share later in the night when Melissa Doyle introduced Sunday Night from outside Kensington Palace. It was the start of a special edition remembering Diana’s death, albeit in August 1997. The show featured some familiar faces for fans of Britain’s royal family. The audience swelled the Sunday Night numbers from 725,000 a week ago to 858,000 last night.

Two episodes of The Blacklist then followed with 303,000 and 188,000.

Nine

Nine News Sunday was a metro network winner and took top spot in Sydney and Melbourne.

Married At First Sight again won the Sunday night clash with the other reality shows. Married has screened four times on Sunday this year in survey and ranked #1 on three of them.

The producers finally pulled the curtain closed on the relationship between Cheryl and Andrew, although you would imagine we haven’t seen the last of ratings magnet Cheryl, we hope!

The Sunday episode did 1.16m for the second successive week and overall it is the fourth time the show has reached that mark.

Tara Brown and Peter Overton were among the reporters working on 60 Minutes this week. The show wasn’t able to compete with Sunday Night though and nearly trailed by 200,000. The 60 Minutes numbers were close to last week however, down from 670,000 to 662,000.

The US drama Lethal Weapon then did 302,000.

TEN

Family Feud Sunday started the channel’s highest-rating Sunday of the survey year with 301,000 at 6pm.

Bondi Rescue then did 360,000, up from 305,000 a week ago.

The penultimate episode of I’m A Celebrity started with some wonderful family reunions as members of each of the four finalists’ families surprised them in camp one at a time. By the end of the episode it was Nazeem Hussain who was going to be able to spend extra time with his wife after being eliminated. The Sunday numbers were 706,000 for the start of the episode and then 851,000 for the elimination. With just one night remaining, TEN reports the 2017 average figures to-date are up 8% total people on last year.

The new US drama Bull then did 433,000 after launching with 534,000 a week ago.

NCIS: New Orleans is now in the Sunday schedule and did 219,000 last night.

Pushed back later was 24: Legacy which did 71,000 with Homeland screening around 11.30pm.

ABC

Vera was the channel’s best with 794,000 at 8.30pm after 828,000 last week.

Grand Designs looked like it showcased a house from The Hobbit with 692,000, up from 646,000 last week.

SBS

A repeat of Roman Britain From The Air performed best for the channel with 196,000 at 7.30pm.

The doco The Boy Who Tried To Kill Trump saw the audience drop to 110,000 before it climbed to 157,000 at 9.30pm for Lost Tribe Of The Amazon.

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