Married at First Sight keeps Sunday night lead

Australian television viewers remain gripped by the shenanigans on reality dating show Married At First Sight.

Married At First Sight contestant Natasha and Mikey. Picture: Supplied.

Australian television viewers remain gripped by the shenanigans on reality dating show Married At First Sight.

The show’s so-called "commitment ceremony" episode was watched by 1.6 million across the country on Nine Network on Sunday night. Nearly 1.2m were of those viewers were in the five metropolitan city markets, again making MAFS the No. 1 show across the country on Sunday night.

MAFS fans saw one couple booted off the show for the first time after a difficult week, and an incident involving a toothbruth that drew the ire of viewers and the show’s panel of “experts”, John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Dr Trisha Stratford.

Seven's evening news and Nine's 60 Minutes, which featured Karl Stefanovic for the first time this year, both recorded 902,000 metro viewers on Sunday night, with evening news on Nine and the ABC watched by 838,000 and 706,000 viewers, respectively.

Stefanovic, who was brought back to co-host Nine's underforming TV breakfast show Today at the start of the year, has a few more stories in the can for 60 Minutes.

Seven's embattled cooking competition program, My Kitchen Rules: The Rivals was trailed with 482,000 metro viewers. The first part of Dancing With The Star on Ten was watched by 417,000 metro viewers, which slipped to 410,000 during the elimination episode.

The popularity of MAFS already has producers planning for next year, with a call going out last week to people over 25 looking for love for season eight, as free-to-air TV companies battle streaming companies for viewers.