The Voice celebrates first week ratings success over their reality rivals Survivor and The Block

The Voice’s million-plus ratings bonanza is set to continue on Sunday with Halimah Kyrgios, the sister of tennis ace Nick, hoping to turn the chairs.

The Voice nailed a hat-trick of ratings wins for its debut week, providing a post-Olympics boost for Seven with its feelgood vibes.

Like MasterChef did in 2020, The Voice is resonating with locked-down Australia and attracted 1,066,000 viewers on Tuesday night against reality rivals Survivor (664,000) and The Block (634,000).

Its ratings fortunes are set to continue on Sunday night when fans tune in to see the Blind Audition of Halimah Kyrgios, the older sister of Australian tennis ace Nick.

Halimah Kyrgios with her brother Nick Kyrgios. Picture: Instagram

The Voice host Sonia Kruger pointed to the talent show’s “joy effect”, as the coaches avoid the kind of nasty sledging matches and manufactured drama which lost viewers during its last season at Nine.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled with Australia’s response,” host Sonia Kruger said this week.

“The Voice is the show we all need right now, more than ever before. It brings so much joy to everyone and that in itself makes it all worthwhile.”

The Voice judges Keith Urban, Jessica Mauboy, Guy Sebastian. and Rita Ora.

The Seven reboot of the talent show, featuring a fresh-ish coaches line-up of former Nine stars Keith Urban and Guy Sebastian, alongside new faces Jessica Mauboy and British pop star Rita Ora, premiered with 1.3 million metro viewers ahead of the Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony.

It then soundly beat its rivals The Block and Survivor again on Monday night with more than 1.1 million viewers in the capital cities.

Seven’s success with a leaner, shorter version of The Voice comes after Nine dropped the reality talent show because of its $40 million budget.

Janaki Easwar, 12, shocked the coaches with her voice … and her age. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Seven have halved their production costs by cutting the flab of Battle Rounds and other confusing additions to the format made by Nine which resulted in fans leaving the show in droves. Last year’s grand final didn’t even crack the million viewers mark.

Siblings Sian Fuller 16 and Jordan Fuller 19, are on rival teams. Picture: Tim Hunter

A sledge from former Nine CEO Hugh Marks when Seven picked up the show last August hasn’t aged well.

“Unfortunately due to the age of the show and declining demographic profile, The Voice had become by far the poorest financial performer on our slate. We wish 7 well in their quest to revive yet another Nine show,” Marks said last year.

Now Seven is on top again, enjoying a post Olympics glow while the tired Block franchise only managed 747,000 viewers for the premiere on Sunday, slipping to 627,000 on Monday.

The Voice 2021 contestant Bella Taylor-Smith is a strong favourite for the 2021 title.

While still over-egging the backstories and overplaying the new Blocked feature preventing rival coaches from securing an artist for their team, Seven’s new-look The Voice is offering a faster-paced show which is light on singing misses and focusing on more contestants who make it.

Seven may have stretched the talent pool a step too young with the supremely gifted Janaki Easwar who is only 12, with most of the coaches clearly puzzled as to why a junior singer was allowed to audition.

Other break out artists include the powerhouse vocalist Cassie McIvor, lopping busker Tanya George, teen brother and sister vocalists Jordan and Sian Fuller and gospel singer Bella Taylor Smith.

Originally published as The Voice celebrates first week ratings success over their reality rivals Survivor and The Block