Married At First Sight keeps them coming back for more

So when did MAFS get so NSFW (Not Safe For Whoever)? The question arises from last night’s effort by Ella and Mitch, whose on-air activities looked like a bit of “fluffing” for something on PornHub — complete with the requisite bad dialogue — rather than the staid old Nine Network.

Still, it worked. Married At First Sight lost only 4000 viewers from Monday night’s opening of 1.15 million (the lowest opening in five years), so perhaps the producers instinctively felt the series needed to be taken down the soft-porn hallway?

Nine said that the BVOD (Broadcast Video on Demand) audience for MAFS last night jumped 34% from 2020 to 310,000. That’s about 27% of the FTA audience and doesn’t yet include catch-up viewing over the next week. Last year’s terrible Love Island (also on Nine) often saw eps where the BVOD and catch-up viewership more than doubled the night’s FTA audience.

Seven’s The Voice Generations appealed even more (to me, at least) but not to viewers — 812,000 nationally last night against 978,000 for the opening. The marathon that is Australian Survivor meant more viewers were left exhausted — last night’s 631,000 down sharply from Monday’s 756,000.

Network channel share:

Regional top 5: Seven News 6.30, 542,000; Seven News, 538,000; Home and Away, 376,000; 7pm ABC News, 313,000; The Voice Generations, 311,000.