MAFS 2019: What do the millions of viewers watch now?
As more people move away from free-to-air television to streaming services, it seems there’s a huge lesson to be learned from the most controversial season of Married At First Sight, writes Cameron Adams.
On Monday night, 2.6 million Australians tuned in to watch the Married At First Sight finale.
Regardless of what you think of the show — guilty pleasure or brain cell-killing trash — that figure proves that free-to-air TV shows can still pull a huge audience.
However, come Tuesday night and the biggest non-news program was good old My Kitchen Rules with 1.2 million viewers.
So that begs the question, where did the other 1.4 million viewers go in 24 hours?
They certainly didn’t go to Channel 10, where the network had strategically launched Bachelor in Paradise to roll out the day after MAFS’ pillow lips were finally sealed.
RELATED: MAFS can’t turn back now, even if it wanted to
On paper, you can see the crossover appeal. In practice, though, it seems things didn’t quite work out, with only 687,000 people tuning into the debut episode of BIP, despite a huge promotional push.
Even The Big Bang Theory, Channel 9’s replacement for MAFS had more viewers, with 797,000 people tuning in.
We covered this ground last year, where many big name TV shows that weren’t news or sports finals were struggling to crack a million viewers.
MAFS has almost tripled that figure this season, but literally overnight, the viewers have vanished.
RELATED: The Married At First Sight storyline that went too far
Presumably they’ve gone back to where they’d previously found better options than what was being offered on free to air — Foxtel (Game of Thrones will launch on Monday), Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime or good old YouTube.
Even the TV networks now offer their own ‘catch-up’ services that let you watch their shows at your leisure, without having to endure the staggered start and end times of commercial networks.
Many will tell you that their main reason for loving Foxtel is because of its IQ box that lets you record programs and fast-forward through ads (can you hear the sound of ad executives’ hearts breaking?) But that’s the appeal of streaming services — no tedious ads. It’s the same reason we all know we can rock up to the cinema 20 minutes after the scheduled start time safe in the knowledge we won’t have missed a thing.
RELATED: What the hell happened to Married At First Sight?
One thing those MAFS ratings — figures not seen since AFL and NRL grand finals — have ensured is that commercial TV has a new blueprint for what people want to watch.
The same way we’re still seeing renovating and cooking shows on TV — they worked once and commercial networks aren’t known for their risks.
This year Channel 10 tried a new format with Sunday Night Takeaway (actually a long running UK show which networks had been trying to get on the air for decades) and last week the ratings were so dire it’s being wound up this week. People complain about commercial TV giving them copycat shows, and then when something different is served up, no one watches.
RELATED: How can we accept this behaviour from MAFS?
But that’s how things work in the commercial world — if something works, do your own version. It’s why you switch on Top 40 radio now and there’s a whole bunch of blokes who sound like Ed Sheeran singing ballads.
MAFS has demonstrated that Australians don’t need their reality TV stars to have any particular talent. And for commercial television in 2019, 2.6 million people can’t be wrong.
So strap in for more fights and filler as reality TV is about to get MAFSified — no talent required.
Cameron Adams is a national music writer for News Corp
Originally published as MAFS 2019: What do the millions of viewers watch now?
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