Fans cannot get enough of reality TV, recording their favourites to watch later in the night

Fans of Married At First Sight, My Kitchen Rules and I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! have one thing in common — and it’s having an unexpected effect on shows screening later in the night.

Married At First Sight fans have a guilty secret – a lot of them are also trying to keep up with rival My Kitchen Rules.

And the opposite is true too – plenty of My Kitchen Rules fans can’t wait to get their nightly Married At First Sight fix.

Ten’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! also screens at 7.30pm, and is another part of the split mix.

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The competing early evening reality shows are so popular that viewers are torn in their allegiance and resort to recording one to watch later the same night.

The trend means that 9pm shows have a hard time gaining traction because people are too busy watching 7pm/7.30pm reality shows back-to-back.

Married At First Sight fans are also tuning in to My Kitchen Rules. Picture: Channel 9

Married At First Sight averaged 1.741 million viewers nationally on Monday night but only 1.445 million watched it live to air.

The other 296,000 were people who recorded it and watched it later that night.

My Kitchen Rules averaged 1.355 million viewers nationally but only 1.177 million watched it live to air.

Another 179,000 were people who recorded it and watched it later in the night.

Monday night’s episode of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! averaged 782,000 viewers nationally but 127,000 of those recorded it and watched it later the same night.

Network bosses are convinced that a lot of the 552,000 people recording the programs on Monday night are fans of rival reality shows who don’t want to miss episodes.

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I'm A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! is also highly popular among viewers. Picture: Channel 10

“Absolutely it is happening – there is massive audience crossover,” Seven program chief Angus Ross says.

“The phenomenon makes it look like the audience drives a cliff at 9pm – because all of that reality viewing at 9pm gets attributed to the 7pm/7.30pm broadcast because it is same night viewing.”

All of Monday night’s episodes are also going to get extra catch-up viewing across the next 28 days as well as the 7Plus and 9Now websites.

The situation isn’t new. Split reality audiences occurred when Nine used summer seasons of The Block to hurt My Kitchen Rules. A lot of people liked both.

Australia’s Got Talent proved no match for Seven’s cooking show so Nine brought Married At First Sight into the mix at the start of 2017.

My Kitchen Rules is also contributing to the phenomenon. Picture: Tara Croser

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That is when the reality audience split started happening again. At first My Kitchen Rules triumphed but over time Married At First Sight has dominated the timeslot.

Now 9pm shows such as Monday night’s Instant Hotel and Murder, Lies and Alibis aren’t just fighting against each other or the streaming services – they’re battling back-to-back viewing of the reality shows.

“This makes programming post-9pm very difficult to attract a large live audience,” media analyst Steve Allen said.

“The time-shifted statistics will show a huge boost for 9pm shows once consolidated viewing (up to 7 days catch up) is collected.

“7pm/7.30pm in recent years is the make-or-break territory for all the networks. Married At First Sight has clearly managed to get the upper hand.”