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Masterchef NZ’s first episode delivers in the kitchen but not on the television

Despite all the hype, reality food show Masterchef NZ’s first episode of the season has failed to deliver in the ratings department, no doubt another blow to Mediaworks as it struggles to compete with TVNZ which is still dominating with the most-watched shows on television.

According to data from Nielsen, Sunday’s first episode of season six which screened at 7pm on TV3 had 106,900 viewers tuning in, in the 25-54 age range while there were 181,000 viewers in the five-plus age category. TVNZ’s offering The Voice: Australia which screened at the same time on TV2 had 246,430 five-plus viewers, according to Stuff.

This is a reasonable fall compared to its last season which screened on TV One in February last year where 185,400  tuned into its first episode in the 25-54 age category, and  in the five-plus category 483,200 viewers tuned in. However it should be noted that the data from last season is consolidated data, whereas the Nielsen data of the first episode of this season’s Masterchef NZ is overnight data.

Masterchef NZ shifted to TV3 this year after five seasons on TV One. This season added judges Mark Wallbank and Al Brown, to replace Ray McVinnie and Simon Gault.

The average number of viewers for the previous season was 195,800 in the 25-54 category and 516,500 in the five-plus category.

For comparison, My Kitchen Rules NZ’s (TVNZ) previous season which screened last year had an average audience of 156,200 in the 25-54 category and 407,000 in the five-plus category.

Over the course of the first five episodes of Masterchef NZ during the last season, episode three saw the most viewers tune in with 191,800 in the 25-54 category and 530,500 in the five-plus category. The episode with the lowest viewer numbers out of these first five was episode four with 120,900 in the 25-54 category and 409,800 in the five-plus category.

The most watched shows on Sunday were One News (TV One) followed by Sunday (TV One), House Hunt (TV One), The Voice: Australia (TV2) and Indian Summers (TV One), however Masterchef NZ was the third most viewed on TV3, according to Nielsen.

According to Throng the season premiere of Masterchef NZ was 48 percent lower in ratings than X Factor New Zealand and 55 percent lower than Dancing with the Stars. “If the panic hadn’t set in at TV3 already, it most certainly will have now. Nothing at all is going their way and I can’t imagine there is any light at the end of the tunnel yet.”

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