In the showdown between two big reality franchises, Nine's The Voice gazumped Seven's My Kitchen Rules by more than 400,000 viewers, but the singing comp's ratings failed to match its least-watched episode of 2012.
The Voice topped the ratings charts last night with its 2013 premiere as 1.82 million metro viewers tuned in, according to preliminary OzTam figures. It's down almost 17% from the 2012 debut of 2.17 million, with the show then going on to claim atmospheric ratings last year.
However, last night's number was lower than The Voice's lowest ratings last year - it dipped to 1.90 million viewers on 4 June 2012. It reached a high, outside of the finale, of 2.69 million in April.
But importantly, The Voice bested Seven's juggernaut My Kitchen Rules which returned in a competing timeslot to 1.40 million viewers after an Easter break. MKR was averaging around almost 2 million viewers each episode in recent weeks.
MKR previously screened Monday to Thursday nights but Seven moved its schedule to Sunday to Wednesday nights, starting on the same night as The Voice's premiere.
The Voice wasn't the only program which achieved lower than historical ratings for Nine yesterday. The network's Logies Awards broadcast pulled in 1.09 million viewers, down 15% on 2012's 1.29 million people. It's significantly lower than 10 years ago when the Logies was watched by 1.94 million people in 2003.
On Ten, The Biggest Loser had 849,000 people tuned in while Elementary drew in 709,000 viewers. Modern Family was watched by 630,000 people.
Seven's Downton Abbey had 1.13 million viewers tuned in.
Across the main channels, Nine convincingly won the day with 35.3% of audience share, followed by Seven with 24.1%, Ten with 11.0%, the ABC with 9.4% and SBS had 4.0%.
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