The Today Show: Why viewers are leaving in droves
To say Channel Nine had captured lightning in a bottle with Married At First Sight (MAFS) would be quite an understatement, but the temporary boost in ratings caused by the hugely popular reality TV show seems to have finally worn off.
And the Today Show is bearing the brunt of it.
News.com.au reports after trailing rival Sunrise all year, Today posted a rare five-city metropolitan ratings win, helped in no small part by MAFS cross promotion.
On Monday, March 19, an average of 259,000 viewers tuned in to Today in each capital city, compared to Sunrise’s 257,000 viewers, with a similar story happening on Thursday, March 22, following the MAFS season finale.
But on Friday, March 23, which was Today’s first morning without MAFS scandals to leverage, it was back to business as usual with Sunrise convincingly beating Today in the five-city metropolitan average ratings, 254,000 to 219,000.
News.com.au reports Sunrise remains Australia’s top-rating breakfast show, averaging 270,000 city viewers to Today’s 253,000. But Nine has the year’s top-rating television show with a metro audience of 1.75m people for MAFS.
What are your thoughts? Do you think Today can claw back viewers? Or is Sunrise always going to remain top dog? Let us know in the comments.