Farmer Wants a Wife struggles in ratings battle against The Floor
Channel 7 network execs have been left rattled by Nine’s new game show soundly beating long-running reality dating program Farmer Wants a Wife.
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Australian television’s most robust rivalry — Seven v Nine — has reached new levels, with Nine’s new game show beating Seven’s long-running reality dating program, leaving Seven network executives rattled.
Despite being one of Seven’s major drawcards, Farmer Wants a Wife isn’t performing as well as the network had reportedly hoped.
Seven debuted FWAW on Easter Monday and drew in 941,000 viewers, an increase on some of their ratings weeks for the show in 2024.
However, they had a rival close behind, with Nine’s Travel Guides closing in with 892,000 in terms of national audience.
This has got Seven bosses worried because in 2024, FWAW’s chief rival was Nine’s Lego Masters, which came in around 669,000.
Compounding Seven’s woes, on Monday last week Nine premiered its new game show The Floor, which raked in 1.17 million viewers, beating FWAW’s on 833,000.
The next night, on Tuesday, The Floor held onto its audience, dipping slightly to a national figure of 1.14m, while FWAW’s audience grew slightly to 848,000.
A Seven spokesperson on Saturday said they were “pleased” with how Farmer was tracking.
“Farmer Wants a Wife was the Seven Network’s highest rated entertainment program in 2024 on both Seven and 7plus,” they said.
“Seven is pleased with how Farmer Wants a Wife is tracking this season, with numbers similar to last year.”
This week’s ratings results are a coup for Nine and actor and presenter Rodger Corser, who is fronting a prime-time quiz show for the first time.
The nerve-racking results are a far cry from 2024, when Samantha Armytage was at the helm, and Farmer Wants a Wife dominated ratings in its timeslot.
The former Sunrise star, 47, appeared as a guest host on the matchmaking reality series in 2022 before she became the face of FWAW in 2023, and replaced current host Natalie Gruzlewski.
In early May 2024, the show boasted a national total TV audience figure of 1.06 million — beating Lego Masters (795,000), and from 7.30pm the I’m a Celebrity finale (749,000) and Call the Midwife (561,000).
That came off the back of a huge year for the series in 2023, when it reached an impressive 8.5 million viewers.
That year it attracted its biggest-ever audience: across Seven and streaming platform 7plus, the 2023 season averaged 1.17 million viewers, with the overnight total audience up 16 per cent from 2022.
Farmer Wants A Wife was part of Nine’s programming from 2007 to 2012 with Gruzlewski as host.
After a few years off air, Nine brought back the show in 2016 with singer Sam McClymont as host, however it failed to achieve decent ratings.
The underwhelming ratings for FWAW isn’t the only thing making Seven execs nervous, with the network also dealing with speculation as to why five farmers became four this year.
Last July, when presenting eight potential farmers for single ladies to apply, Seven announced six would feature — five main cast and one twist.
However, by the November Upfronts, it issued show photography with five farmers.
By March it was down to four blokes on the land.
A Seven spokesperson said, the network has decided not to include a particular farmer’s storyline in this year’s show, adding: “We will not be providing any further comment.”
The ratings pressure for Seven comes as they deal with a fresh lawsuit from former Sunrise producer Matthew McGrane, who is suing Seven in the federal court after being injured while travelling from work to home late at night.
“They’re putting out a few fires at the moment, the ratings are the least of their problems”, one Seven insider told Sunday Confidential.
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Originally published as Farmer Wants a Wife struggles in ratings battle against The Floor
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