The 2017 head-to-head battle between MasterChef and The Voice has begun as Ten and Nine's flagship programs are pitted against each other in the 7.30pm prime time slot.
A little over a million (1.06 million) metropolitan viewers tuned in to the premiere of Ten's MasterChef, up 50,000 from last year's debut, while Nine's flagship The Voice, now in its fifth blind audition episode, reached just over 1.1 million metropolitan viewers.
Nine's main channel won the night with 22.4% of the audience share, while Seven attracted 16.8%. Ten followed closely behind pulling in 15.3% of audiences, a welcome return to double digits after a lull brought on by the Biggest Loser's flop.
The ninth season of MasterChef, began with a cracking golden egg, wasabi caviar and the “perfect” gnocchi.
Media intelligence company Meltwater monitored online social discussions and found the majority of social sentiment around MasterChef was positive, out of a total of 2,059 conversations.
Other social commentary included:
https://twitter.com/sportsbetcomau/status/859000290879578112
https://twitter.com/_JulieGoodwin/status/858985780739321857
https://twitter.com/benpobjie/status/858979163390189568
According to Ten, MasterChef was the number one program in the 25-54 demographic, and peaked at 1.75 million.
Booze brand Diageo also ran a series of content-led ads throughout the show starring MasterChef host Matt Preston making dessert recipes using its premium spirits such as Baileys.
MasterChef is Ten's biggest program, with its 2016 and 2015 finales pulling in 1.88 million and two million viewers respectively.
This season it's backed by big Australian brands, including Cobram Estate, Coles, Nick Scali and Harvey Norman.
Seven's 7.30pm show House Rules' second episode of the season received 606,000 viewers.
However, Seven Year Switch failed to make it into the top 20 most watched programs of the night, averaging 465,000 metropolitan viewers.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.