Married at First Sight tops My Kitchen Rules in TV’s first big ratings showdown of 2019

Romance trumped food in TV’s first big ratings showdown of 2019.

A scene from Nine's Married at First Sight, which is starting its sixth season. Picture: Supplied

Nine’s reality dating show Married at First Sight was the most watched entertainment program across the country on Monday night, beating Seven’s cooking competition show My Kitchen Rules in the first big head-to-head ratings battle of 2019.

The debut of the sixth season of Married at First Sight, which was a huge hit for Nine last year, was watched by 1.3 million viewers, up 3.2 per cent from last year.

That compares with the 1.2 million people that watched the start of the tenth series of MKR last night.

Nine and Seven heavily promoted the shows over the summer during their inaugural coverage of the tennis, including the Australian Open over the past fortnight for Nine, and cricket for Seven.

In tennis, the men’s final between Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal of Spain on Sunday night was the highest rating show of the year so far, but the lowest for an Australian Open men’s final in more than a decade.

Nine’s chief sales officer Michael Stephenson said it is “heartened to see the growth in the launch audience for Married at First Sight.”

“This only underlines the reasons why Nine chose to make the switch to tennis and the amazing launch vehicle it is for our first quarter programming.”

With no sport over the summer for the first time in several years, Ten is betting on its reality show I’m Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! to attract viewers, with 944,000 people tuning in on Monday.

Seven’s breakfast show Sunrise continues to power ahead, boasting 406,000 viewers on Monday morning, compared to the revamped Today, which was watched by 282,000 viewers on Nine.