“Lego Masters” on Channel 9, “The Voice Australia” on Channel 7 and “MasterChef Australia” on Channel 10 all had their premieres last night, vying for the top spot in the ratings.
The launch of “The Voice” on Channel 7 had 843,000 metro viewers, according to the overnight figures, compared to 672,000 for “Lego Masters” and 545,000 for “”MasterChef”.
All three commercial free-to-air TV networks will also be looking at their streaming and catch-up figures to get a full picture of the programs’ success due to the changing television viewing landscape.
When “Lego Masters” debuted in 2019, it had an overnight metro audience of 1.377 million. Even further back when “The Voice Australia” premiered on Channel 9 in 2012, it had an overnight metro audience of 2.177 million. “MasterChef” in 2009 debuted to 1.42 million.
Despite the shake-up over the past decade, the Seven Network has consistently predicted “The Voice” will be the #1 entertainment program of 2022, and the Nine Network’s Adrian Swift, head of content production and development, has admitted he has some regrets about letting the show go only for it to pop up on rival Channel 7.
So far, with the addition of regional television viewers, “The Voice’s” audience has climbed to 1.27 million.
The further addition of those watching on Seven’s broadcast video on demand (BVOD) platform 7Plus, took the total overnight viewing audience to 1.338 million.
The Seven Network said this made it the biggest show launch of 2022 so far.
“Lego Masters” on Channel 9, meanwhile, benefitted from the addition of 257,000 regional viewers and 42,000 on BVOD platform 9Now, taking its total overnight figure to 971,000. It was also the #1 program with those aged 18 to 49 and 25 to 54, generally considered to be the key advertising demographics for advertisers.
Host Hamish Blake has previously said he’s been “relieved” by the show’s ratings.
“We have so much fun making the show, so numbers are nice and the network – it’s great for the network. And it’s awesome that families enjoyed it,” he said.
“But for us inside the show, you just want people who will enjoy the show to find it. You just want something to do good enough that you can do it again. And so, the reward for us is getting to go it again.”
In the younger 16 to 39 demographic, it was a tight race between “Seven News” at 6:30 (137,000),
“The Voice” (135,000) and “Lego Masters” (134,000).
Channel 10 said the total audience for “MasterChef” was 749,000 including regional viewers and those tuning in via a live stream.
All three programs continue tonight at 7:30 p.m.