Regional viewers help boost Farmer Wants A Wife ratings

Regional viewers have helped to give this year’s season of Farmer Wants A Wife a win in the ratings.

According to a report by Ad News on Wednesday, the hit Channel Seven reality show is proving to be a hit with audiences in rural areas.

Sunday’s premiere episode pulled in 908,000 metro viewers, while an additional 492,000 regional viewers also watched.

This totalled a national audience of 1.4million viewers for the newly revived show’s debut episode.

It beat out Channel Nine’s Australian Ninja Warrior, with Seven claiming the show had topped its time slot for viewers aged 16 to 39.  

‘It’s clear that Australians have fallen in love with Farmer Wants A Wife, with a great launch and strong audiences, particularly in the key demographics and in regional Australia,’ Seven’s network programming director, Angus Ross, told Ad News.

‘Farmer has also continued our strength in BVOD, with solid numbers for its first two episodes. 

‘We’re excited about continuing to share this much-loved show with our audiences over the next few weeks.’

Farmer Wants A Wife first premiered in 2007, and ran until 2012, with a brief return in 2016.

It was then revived in 2020, despite being delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, with original host Natalie Gruzlewski at the helm.

The show follows five farmers as they search for lasting love, with prospective partners sent to live with them on their farm to see if they’re cut out for country life.

‘It is almost an antidote to Married At First Sight… We genuinely want the relationships to work. It is about going back to basics and helping couples finding true love,’ Seven’s director of production Andrew Backwell told Mediaweek in July.