Still number one! Married At First Sight records HUGE ratings success on premiere of season eight as Seven’s finale of Holey Moley falls flat at finale
Married At First Sight has long been one of Channel Nine’s top-rating programs.
And Monday’s premiere of the controversial social experiment’s eighth season only continued to cement the series as a clear ratings winner for the network.
Married at First Sight was Australia’s No.1 program overnight with a national peak audience of 1.486 million tuning in for the reality TV drama.
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Still number one! Married At First Sight records HUGE ratings success with premiere of season eight (pictured) on Monday night as Seven’s finale of Holey Moley falls of its perch
The national average audience for the premiere was 1.255 million (Metro: 964,000 / Regional: 291,000), according to OzTam figures.
Nine’s program director Hamish Turner told Media Week on Tuesday: ‘We are thrilled to see Australia once again fall in love with Married At First Sight.’
He claimed the successful broadcast of the Australian Open and now the launch of MAFS has given Nine some of the best ratings among the 16-39 age demographic in more than a decade.
‘We expect that the audience will again build across both linear TV and 9Now as Australia follows the journey of the experiment’s participants,’ he added.
‘We are thrilled to see Australia once again fall in love with Married At First Sight’: Nine’s program director Hamish Turner told Media Week that he expected audience numbers to grow
No longer on top: While Holey Moley had been dominating the ratings, and even outperformed the MAFS all-star Grand Reunion special last month, it fell off its perch at the final hurdle
MAFS went head to head with the finale of Seven’s Holey Moley put put gold series on Monday night.
While Holey Moley had been dominating the ratings, and even outperformed the MAFS all-star Grand Reunion special last month, it fell off its perch at the final hurdle.
Married At First Sight saw a five-city metro viewership of 964,000, while Holey Moley’s finale only saw 481,000 metro viewers tune in.
Mark Duncan was crowned Australia’s first Holey Moley champion on the night, and was awarded $100,000 in prize money.
In comparison, Channel 10’s Amazing Race was watched by 508,000 people in the five capital cities.
Winner: Mark Duncan was crowned Australia’s first Holey Moley champion on the night, and was awarded $100,000 in prize money
Rival: Channel 10’s Amazing Race was watched by 508,000 people in the five capital cities. Pictured: host Beau Ryan
And it begins: On MAFS’ season eight premiere, the first two weddings were aired. Pictured: Bride Beck Zemek and Jake Edwards
The past three seasons of Married At First Sight have ranked in the top spot of the night’s programming in ratings with more than one million loyal viewers.
On MAFS’ season eight premiere, both the Hen’s and Buck’s nights were broadcast, as well as the weddings between Beck Zemek and Jake Edwards, and Melissa Rawson and Bryce Ruthven.
Married At First Sight continues on Tuesday from 7:30pm on Channel Nine