My Kitchen Rules has recorded its lowest grand final and winner audiences in five years despite easily dominating TV ratings last night.
The grand final show, which pitted Tasia and Gracia against Carmine and Lauren, posted an average metro audience of 1.82 million viewers. This was followed by Tasia and Gracia being announced winners in a show that recorded 1.96 million metro viewers.
There's no doubt Seven's MKR has been a roaring success this year, swatting by all-comers to win the coveted 7.30pm slot nearly every night it aired.
Shows that have struggled against Seven's juggernaut include Nine's reboot of Australia's Got Talent and Reno Rumble, which was moved to a different timeslot after poor ratings. Ten's I'm a Celebrity also failed to come close, but still grew its audience on last year.
However, this year's series of MKR was well below last year's grand final (2.08 million) and winner announced (2.12 million), and you need to go back to 2011 when a grand final show rated worse.
In the past two years MKR's grand final ratings have trended downwards, which raises the question why?
Are Australian audiences finally becoming fatigued with cooking contest shows that are increasingly more about big personalities and kitchen dramasrather than cooking?
Or is Seven's drawn out format with extra preliminary rounds this year tiring audiences when it gets to the pointy end of the competition?
Answers to the genre question should become apparent when Ten's flagship show Masterchef, which begins in May.
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