Episodes 29, 30, 31 and 32 of Married At First Sight screened in Week 12 of the TV year. The Endemol Shine Australia-produced reality show drove Nine to another ratings win.
The four MAFS episodes Nine screens weekly have been the top four shows of the week for the past seven weeks. We haven’t seen chart domination like that since, since, My Kitchen Rules several years ago.
In 2017 MAFS and MKR were neck and neck for part of Q1. In week 12 they had the top six sports – MAFS 1,2 and 3, and then MKR 4,5 and 6, but there was little separating the two shows.
In 2018, week 12 was the final week of MAFS given an earlier Easter and then Comm Games. The episodes that week ranged from 1.449m on Sunday to 1.637m for the final dinner party to 1.761m for the final episode. This year there is still a bit to go.
In week 12 2019, Seven had its best share in five weeks, but it didn’t steal viewers from Nine. Nine’s share was up week-on-week too.
ABC, 10 and SBS all had marginal all people primary share falls.
All combined channel networks shares were down this week, except for Seven, which grew from 28.0% to 30.4% week-on-week.
The hottest properties
Nine: Don’t ask. Second was the ever-improving Travel Guides, which did 782,000.
Seven: The Thursday and Friday coverage of the AFL was the best of the new arrivals with metro average audiences over 700,000 for both matches.
The brilliant crime drama Manhunt debuted well with 593,000, which really is a cracking number these days for 9pm.
10: The Australian Grand Prix was by far the biggest attraction with 689,000, which was up year-on-year.
Gogglebox continues to be the best-performing regular series despite 10 getting second rights after a Lifestyle screening the night prior.
ABC: Hard Quiz was the channel’s best with Tom Gleeson also a key contributor on the return of The Weekly With Charlie Pickering. Gleeson could also be featured in one of next week’s highest-rating shows as he hosts the Melbourne International Comedy Gala on Sunday night.
SBS: Australia In Colour topped the ratings for a second consecutive week for the channel with another 300,000+ audience. The next best was 100,000 behind with episodes of Great British Railway Journeys and Great Continental Railway Journeys on 200,000.