The return of Ten's tentpole reality dating program The Bachelor has launched with 828,000 metro viewers tuning in overnight, down over 100,000 viewers from 2018.
This year, Ten decided to return to 'tradition' and opt to select a Bachelor who had no prior celebrity status. This year Ten named Astrophysicist Matt Agnew as the man to take on the Bachelor mantle in 2019.
The decision by Ten was a deviation from previous strategies, which has seen the network choose individuals who had either been famous, such as Cummins and TV personality Sophie Monk, or had already appeared on the program, such as former contestants Sam Frost and Ali Oetjen.
“Audiences have fallen in love with Matt as their 2019 Bachelor. Matt’s journey is just beginning and we can’t wait for audiences to share in his journey to find a love that’s out of this world," Network Ten head of programming Daniel Monaghan says.
“It achieved the highest share ever for a Bachelor launch, was the #1 entertainment show of the night, topped all the demos and created worldwide social buzz.”
Despite being down on 2018's infamous Honey Badger season, which delivered series high launch ratings, drawing in 940,000 metro viewers, the show still dominated in primetime.
When combining metro and regional viewers, the show's debut drew in over one million viewers, with a total national audience of 1.07m.
Elsewhere in primetime, Nine aired Young Sheldon which drew 435,000 metro viewers, while Seven's Highway Patrol special episode drew 534,000 viewers.
In the overnight main channel battle, Seven won the night due to the strength of its nightly news bulletin, taking a 20.2% audience share.
Ten came in second, improving on its slow start to the week, taking a 17.2% share, knocking Nine into an unfamiliar third place with 16.7% audience share.
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