MAFS wins ratings over Survivor and The Voice amid huge night of reality TV

Seven, Nine and Ten launched big new reality TV seasons last night, all competing for number one in the ratings game. Here’s who came out on top.

Aussie viewers were in no shortage of options on Monday night, with reality TV favourites The Voice, Married At First Sight and Survivor all premiering in prime time.

But in the ratings game, one offering trumped them all — thanks to a clever launch date straight off the back of The Australian Open on Channel 9.

Guilty pleasure MAFS won the night overall across all key demographics and metro capitals, with 869,000 viewers, TV Tonight reports.

Despite winning the night, the controversial TV show launched to its lowest audience since 2017.

Surprisingly, Survivor: Blood Vs. Water, with 608,000 viewers, beat out Seven’s The Voice: Generations, which even finished behind the 7.30 Report on ABC with a metro audience of 529,000.

However, looking at the national figure — not just from the five capital cities — The Voice raked in 878,000, while Survivor had 756,000 viewers in total. Media Week reports The Voice was also number one in regional audiences.

The Voice had massive first season on Channel 7 last year after the network nabbed it from 9.

Launching after the Olympics in August and featuring a new judging panel of Rita Ora, Jess Mauboy, Guy Sebastian and Keith Urban, it premiered to its largest audience in five years.

Married At First Sight season 9

Speaking to industry publication TV Tonight, Channel 9’s director of programming Hamish Turner said the reality show’s success comes from viewers “knowing what they’re getting”.

“MAFS is always defined by the characters and the relationships and how those relationships either evolve or devolve, depending on how you look at it,” Turner explained.

“I think the people who come to the show know what they’re going to get.”

Season 9 of Married At First Sight kicked off with a bang, with fans lapping up the early hints of an ill-matched pairing between Brent and Tamara.

MAFS viewers were hooked on Tamara and Brent’s rollercoaster of a wedding day.

Self-confessed “sassy, judgmental” career woman Tamara was quick to pass judgment on her groom over concerns surrounding his hospitality career, assuming 33-year-old Brent worked in a nightclub.

“Why does he work in a nightclub? That does kind of worry me a little bit ‘cause I don’t want to date another party boy. That’s not appealing,” she told producers after their nuptials, declaring “Average just isn’t for me”.

“I work for a big corporate company Monday to Friday, and I want someone who has achieved something in life. That’s what I’ve done,” she added.

Social media was abuzz with first impressions of the pair, with it clear many have pegged Tamara as this season’s “villain”.

People who judge others based on their job should get in the bin with the huntsman in my garage. #MAFS#mafsau

— Kat (@hamkaja_) January 31, 2022

Survivor: Blood Vs. Water

Over on Channel 10, Survivor's new season starring former MasterChef star Khanh Ong and two-time US Survivor winner Sandra Diaz, pulled in a solid 608,000, coming in second across all key demographics in metro capitals.

Its last season in August 2021 scored a similar 609,000 metro viewers on premiere night — its but was blitzed by The Voice which had an audience of just over 1.3 million.

This time around, it beat The Voice — a relief for the network which suffered dire ratings for The Bachelor and Bachelorette and trailed behind the other networks for much of the year.

Ultimately, episode one saw mega fan Andy Meldrum — who had appeared on 2019’s Champions vs Contenders season — voted out first.

Andy was devastated to hear his name called out.

The Voice Generations

The biggest ratings surprise of the night came via The Voice, which was one of the biggest hits of 2021.

Last year, the singing competition saw a huge jump in ratings after moving from its long time home on Channel 9 to Channel 7.

The success of the revamped format was what led Seven to make a new iteration of the show to fill a schedule gap between the cricket and Winter Olympics.

Channel 7 launched its revamped version of The Voice last year.

The hotly anticipated premiere of The Voice Generations had superstar coaches Keith Urban, Rita Ora, Guy Sebastian and Jessica Mauboy ecstatic over the talent at the blind auditions, but it only pulled in 529,000 metro viewers, well behind its competitors in the same time slot, and even lower than the ABC’s The 7.30 Report, which had 533,000 tuned in.