TV viewers choose Ten’s Masterchef over Seven’s Royal Wedding

Seven’s attempt to capitalise on the hype around Price Harry and Meghan Markle’s upcoming wedding by screening ITV’s Invitation to a Royal Wedding during prime time has secured 410,000 metro viewers, according to OzTAM’s overnight preliminary metro ratings.

The show was beaten by Masterchef over on Ten, which had 792,000 viewers – making it the most-watched entertainment program of the evening – and ABC’s 7.30 which pulled 476,000.

Hosts of ITV’s Invitation to a Royal Wedding: Trevor McDonald and Julie Etchingham

Nine’s offering of the NRL match between the Penrith Panthers and West Tigers – two Sydney-based teams – had 384,000 on the main channel, 253,000 of whom were from Sydney. In Brisbane, 131,000 viewers watched the match. In other cities, Nine screened RBT.

The key advertising demographics – people aged 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54 – were also won by Ten’s Masterchef.

In the news battle, Nine News was on top with 961,000 across the five cities – also winning the individual battle in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Seven News had 949,000, but was ahead in Adelaide and Perth.

Ten News, which screens earlier at 5pm, had 429,000, and ABC News had 664,000.

Nine’s news and current affairs line-up helped it to win the evening with a 20.6% audience share. Seven had 17.5%, while Ten had 14.8%. ABC was in fourth position on 9.7%, and SBS had 5.4%.

On a network basis – including multi-channels such as 7mate, 9Go and Eleven – Seven Network edged ahead and won the night with 29.2%. Nine Network had 27.8%, Ten Network was on 19.9%. ABC had 15.6% and SBS 7.5%.

The multi-channels’ ratings were dominated by ABC KIDS programs, with Peter Rabbit topping the chart on 203,000. Seven’s screening of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines on 7mate (188,000) and Father Brown on 7Two (187,000), helped the network edge slightly ahead.