The experimental new format of “The Bachelor”, known in 2023 as “The Bachelors”, premiered to its lowest audience ever on Monday night.
The format now features three leading men and a host of women competing for their affections.
On linear television on Monday night, “The Bachelors” had a metro audience of 309,000, well below that of the 482,000 metro viewers who tuned into the premiere episode in 2021 and even further behind 2020’s 681,000 and 2019’s 828,000.
With the addition of regional viewers and those live-streaming or catching up online via 10 Play, the show had a total overnight audience of 439,000.
The show had originally been slated to run in 2022, however was pushed back to the official non-ratings period of January in favour of Channel 10’s new programs “The Traitors” and “The Real Love Boat“. Both of these shows had underwhelming launches last year, with “The Traitors” pulling in just 257,000 overnight metro viewers for its first episode and “The Real Love Boat” scoring 215,000.
Network 10 has previously employed the strategy of launching big format shows in early January to get a jump start on its competitors and offer an alternative option for viewers not interested in sport such as cricket and tennis.
It has previously launched “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here” in January, up against the Australian Open tennis tournament. In recent years, however, the network increasingly moved “I’m A Celebrity” forward, to launch as early as Jan. 4.
The scheduling decision was more of a winner for “I’m A Celebrity” than “The Bachelors” though, with 2021’s “I’m A Celebrity” drawing 1.385 million overnight viewers on launch.
