MasterChef pulled in 1.3 million viewers in its grand final episode last night as viewers tuned in to watch Sahsi Cheliah crowned the winner of the show's 2018 competition.
The reality cooking show was also the victor in the battle of finales, defeating Nine's Australian Ninja Warrior's grand finale, which drew in 1.13 million viewers.
Split across two programs, MasterChef's 'winner announced' was the outright winner with 1.3m viewers, while its 'Grand Finale Part Two' program drew in 1.12m viewers.
The show drew similar viewing figures when compared to last year's 2017 Grand Finale.
Cheliah took out the $250,000 grand prize, beating runner-up, Queensland builder Ben Borsht, with a score of 93 out of 100.
Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal was present for the night, issuing the finalist with the second round challenge, recreating his “counting sheep” dessert which involved 19 elements and 84 ingredients.
The 2018 season of MasterChef Australia had a series average of 1.2 million viewers nationally, including 907,000 metro city viewers.
The series’ five city metro total audience average – which includes television and online catch-up viewing and television encores – was 1.05 million.
Network Ten chief content officer Beverly McGarvey pointed to the celebrity guests featured in the 2018 season as the main driver behind ratings success, with episodes featuring Nigella Lawson, Gordon Ramsay and the Prince of Wales, all scoring solid ratings.
Over on Nine, Ninja was also split into grand final events, the 'grand final' and 'final stage', which drew in 1.08m and 1.13m viewers respectively.
This was down significantly on the 2017 grand finale which had an average metro audience of two million, down half the viewership.
National audience figures were worse for the final stage in 2018, with 1.53m viewers tuning in, compared to last year's final stage which had a national average of three million.
Viewers were, for the second year in a row, left disappointed by the physical challenge show's finale, as none of the remaining 24 'ninjas' were able to conquer the final stage for a shot at $200,000 and a chance to tackle Mount Midoriyama.
Other viewers pointed out that show has been running for several years in other markets, with host Ben Fordham saying it took seven seasons of the US series for a 'ninja' to conquer the mountain.
However, the finale did not come without some drama, as "Tradie Ninja" Sam Goodall, who was dealing with Ross River virus, collapsed during the final stage and was helped off the course by producers.
Fordham closed the 2018 series, with hints being dropped of a third season and an increased prize pool.
The shows second season has come with its fair share of criticism, as ratings were down significantly when compared to its debut season.
Despite the win for Ten and MasterChef, the network was unable to beat Nine in the overnight main channel battle, as Nine came in at number one with a 23.8% share.
Ten trailed with a solid 21.3% share, while Seven, which aired its House Rules finale on Monday night, came in third with a 15.1% share.
Supplied by OzTam.
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