Slow burner: My Kitchen Rules could be a TV ratings dark horse

After a fizzer of a launch, MKR is turning up the heat on its rivals. Full ratings figures reveal it’s the reality show viewers are setting aside until later to savour.

Complete TV ratings are in for week one of new season My Kitchen Rules (MKR), The Block, and The Masked Singer – and they paint a different picture to MKR’s lowball launch.

The total audience for MKR last week, according to OzTAM and RegionalTAM, was 974,000. That accounts for everyone who watched live, or streamed the show on catch-up across the country.

Channel 7 needn’t have been worried by the slow start to their new season, with Nigella Lawson at the helm, when the launch episode drew only 503,000 viewers in five city metros on last Sunday.

Because ‘total TV’ numbers now place their foodie soap’s viewership up 27 per cent, and ahead of The Masked Singer on Channel 10.

Nigella Lawson joined My Kitchen Rules star Manu Feildel in the new season on Channel 7. Picture: Jeremy Greive

“At the moment, MKR’s audience retention rate is quite high,” Trent Thomas, editor of trade publication MediaWeek told Confidential. “You don’t normally see results that strong, which bodes well for them. Because clearly people have decided to opt into the remainder of the series.”

The Masked Singer was the eighth most-watched program last week, with 894,000 eyeballs on it. And The Block AU cemented its number one spot with 1.693 million.

Australian swimming champion Lisa Curry was revealed to be the celeb under the caterpillar costume. The Masked Singer ranked as the 8th most-watched program last week, based on total TV audience, after MKR.

These numbers tell us “we’re seeing a shifting audience,” for homegrown reality, Thomas added, “not an audience disappearing. Reality TV has a strong future in Australia, it’s just how people consume it that’s changing.”

“The Block was never going to lose, but MKR has done a really good job of securing enough of an audience to get them to a renewal.”

MKR increased its overnight viewership on three consecutive nights this week, from 450K, to 470K, then 500K; a feat Thomas called impressive and unusual.

My Kitchen Rules couple Frena Yusof and Steven Budgen called time on their engagement quits shortly after they finished filming the latest series.

“To do the same numbers as your launch, and to go up three nights in a row is unusual. That’s actually quite impressive,” he said. “If MKR can keep its ratings around where they’ve been, there’s a good chance you’ll see another season next year.”

But fair warning for any ‘lovebirds’ keen to sign up: Competing may spell the end for your romance. This season’s engaged couple, Steven Budgen and Frena Yusof (right), called it quits just three weeks after filming wrapped.