Australian Ninja Warrior narrowly beats MasterChef in ratings battle

The Nine Network’s Australian Ninja Warrior has won the ratings war over Network Ten’s MasterChef Australia. 

In Monday’s ratings round up, as reported by TV Blackbox, the athletics themed show pulled in 709,000 viewers. 

MasterChef Australia, which is approaching its season finale, didn’t do too much worse, with 626,000 tuning in. 

The winner of the night was the ABC’s 7:30 report, which had 721,000 viewers switching on. 

It comes as MasterChef Australia struggles to maintain last year’s huge numbers this season without the star power of returning contestants like Poh Ling Yeow.

MasterChef: Back to Win pulled in more than one million viewers a night last year.

According to metro ratings published by Mediaweek in May, the figures aren’t improving as the competition in the kitchen heats up. 

The show pulled in as low as 573,000 viewers that month, which demonstrates just how far the cooking show has fallen in 12 months.   

The once-unbeatable program only barely made it into the top 10 most-watched programs, sliding into ninth place.

The show was again outdone by Nine’s Lego Masters, which gained the top spot in the entertainment category.

Ratings for MasterChef nosedived soon after the season premiere, falling to 537,000 viewers in its first week.

This was no doubt a sour serving for the reality show which broke the ‘magic million’ mark in its first week last year – including nearly 1.1 million for its second episode.