Ten's second season of reality dating show Bachelor in Paradise has been unable to recreate its first season debut ratings success, drawing in only 553,000 metro viewers.
In this iteration of The Bachelor series, previous Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants come together on a tropical Fijian resort.
Despite the successful launch of the series in 2018, last night's season two debut slumped by over 150,000 metro overnight viewers (season one drew in 750,000).
“Bachelor In Paradise is back and we’re thrilled to return as the #1 show in under 50s for the night. It was also #1 in every key demo. Once again, it fulfilled its promise to be the noisiest show on social media, trending #1 in Australia and #5 worldwide," Network Ten head of programming Daniel Monaghan says.
The show was in fact number two according to Nielsen's figures, with MAFS still trending at number one. However, it was the number one trending 'new show' in Australia.
Last year, the show launched on a Sunday night, which generally draws in higher viewership and could be a contributing factor to the lower ratings.
On the network's broadcast video on demand platform, 10Play, the show's live streaming figures were up 41% year-on-year.
Despite this, the show was unable to topple Seven's My Kitchen Rules, which returned to the top primetime spot following the conclusion of Nine's Married at First Sight on Monday.
The reality cooking show drew in 854,000 metro viewers, with the show hoping to steadily improve as the season draws to a close, without the rating 'behemoth' that was MAFS.
Bachelor in Paradise was also unable to beat Nine in the primetime slot, which, without MAFS, ran a double episode of the Big Bang Theory, drawing in 571,000 metro viewers for the first episode and 469,000 for the second.
In the overnight main channel battle, Seven also managed to return to the top spot with a 21.5% share and eked out Nine, which came in second with 19.3%. Ten came in third with 12.1%, just getting past the ABC, which had an 11.7% share.
Bachelor in Paradise and MKR will both return tonight in the primetime slot, with the Ten reality drama boasting a "raw and uncut" confrontation between former couple and contestants Richie Strahan and Alex Nation. Nine will swap out Big Bang for Paramedics.
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