• Big twist on Australian Idol as singers prepare for finale
• AFL and NRL get crowds cheering
Total TV Ratings, March 12
The weekly commitment ceremony on Nine‘s Married At First Sight (MAFS) saw Alyssa storm out after her husband Duncan said that she has high expectations of him, lifting 60% for a total TV audience of 1,920,000.
Vera and Death In Paradise also cracked the million mark (again) for the ABC. Vera was up 41% for a total audience of 1,335,000, while Death In Paradise drew a crowd of 1,043,000, up 20%.
Up 42%, an incredibly dramatic Australian Survivor had 923,000 watch as previous winner Hayley was taken down by a blindside orchestrated by – who else would it be? – George.
Australian Idol saw the top eight pay tribute to the important people and places in their lives, with Josh performing Coldplay’s Fix You in tribute to his music teacher Tracey who is battling brain cancer. The episode was up 24%, with 794,000 tuning in.
Overnight TV Ratings, March 19
Primetime News
Seven News 882,000
Nine News 783,000
ABC News 535,000
10 News First 191,000 (5:00pm)/ 151,000 (6:00pm)
SBS World News 154,000 (6:30pm)/ 108,000 (7:00pm)
Daily Current Affairs
60 Minutes 554,000
The Project 178,000 (6:30 pm)/ 290,000 (7pm)
Insiders 232
Breakfast TV
Sunrise 188,000
Today 155,000
News Breakfast 146,000
Nine has won Sunday night with a primary share of 28.2% and a network share of 35.2%. 7Two and 9GO! both came out on top for multichannels with a 2.7% share.
On Nine, the final Married At First Sight (MAFS) Commitment Ceremony was full of drama, seeing see which couples would choose to stay in the experiment and prepare for Final Vows. 927,000 watched as Harrison was ripped a new orifice by the experts over the things he’d said to his wife Bronte, before he chose to stay after saying he “unequivocally” would leave at the last Dinner Party. 60 Minutes looked at parental abduction, specifically the hundreds of thousands of children kidnapped by a parent in Japan as a result of the sole custody laws. 554,000 watched as the show spoke to Scott McIntyre, a man with no idea where his children are.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs held off a late comeback by the Wests Tigers in the NRL, taking the win 26-22 in front of their home crowd and 251,000 viewers.
Seven’s Australian Idol saw 467,000 watch the contestants sing songs chosen by Australia. In a twist, the judges shocked the remaining six contestants by announcing they wouldn’t be saving an artist from the public vote: it was now Australia’s turn to decide. An Audience with Adele kept the music going for 200,000.
In the afternoon AFL, Greater Western Sydney managed to bounce back from being 31 points down to defeat the Adelaide Crows in front of 379,000.
On 10, The Project (178,000 6:30pm / 290,000 7pm) looked at why there has been another mass fish kill in Menindee, and interviewed Jessica Mauboy. After a tense day for the castaways on Australian Survivor, the tribal council vote was a tie between Nina and Simon. 552,000 watched as the revote ended with Simon unanimously voted out.
See Also: Australian Survivor Simon Mee exposes the brutal reality of the show in a deleted-Tweet
On the ABC, Death In Paradise drew 485,000 in as a woman reported a murder before being found strangled, leaving the team wondering whether she was reporting her own murder. The first episode of In Our Blood, a drama inspired by Australia’s response to AIDS in the 1980s, then debuted to 192,000 viewers.
The highest rating non-news program on SBS was Lost City Of Gaul: Unearthing Bibracte with 127,000 viewers.
