MasterChef's new 'Boys versus Girls' trick seems to have paid off, sort of. The series debuted to a decent 1.10 million last night while Nine's The Block Sky High took the top spot.
The second series of MasterChef for 2013, the first being the under-performing The Professionals spin-off, ran for over an hour and a half on Sunday night to an average of 1.10 million metro viewers and 1.4 million national viewers, according to overnight figures from OzTam. Ten said that made the show number one in its timeslot for 25-54 and under 25s.
The 'Boys versus Girls' theme drew ire from the public, including feminist group Destroy the Joint, for being sexist when it was first revealed earlier this year. However, that anger appears to have subsided.
Sponsors of the main 2013 series included Coles, Sunbeam, Chrysler, Qantas, Nandos and Fonterra.
In terms of integration, the tradition of using previous winners to spruik products during ad breaks continued with The Professionals winner Rhys Badcock appearing in a Sunbeam ad, and Coles received a few extra namechecks by contestants throughout the broadcast.
Nine's The Block Sky High, which MasterChef was not directly up against, attracted 1.61 million metro viewers and was the most watched program on Sunday. 60 Minutes was fourth with 1.29 million viewers while House Husbands drew in 901,000 viewers.
Seven's local historical drama A Place to Call Home was watched by 1.22 million people.
On the ABC, Paper Giants: Magazine Wars, which documented the rivalry between magazine editors Nene King and Dulcie Boling in the 1980s, had 846,000 people tuned in. ABC's original Paper Giants production, The Birth of Cleo, attracted 1.2 million for its first part.
Also on Ten, the fourth season finale of Modern Family garnered 666,000 while Elementary had 665,000 people tuned in.
Across the main channels, Seven and Nine tied for first place in audience share with 22.7% each. Ten was third with 15%, followed by the ABC with 13.8% and SBS had 3.6%.
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