The premiere of MasterChef Australia on Network Ten attracted 1.1 million viewers nationally on Monday night, thrashed by The Voice’s 2.636 million.
MasterChef also trailed Seven's House Rules which had 1.75 million viewers.
Ten said MasterChef was No. 2 in its timeslot in Melbourne in 25-to-54s, under 55s and total people. The network is hoping that Kylie Kwong, who joins the celebrity chefs from Thursday, plus a stronger emphasis on food and cooking will lift the ratings of the Shine Australia production this year.
Nine unkindly pointed out the 5-city audience of 874,000 for MasterChef was down by 234,000 on the 1.108 million viewers who tuned into the launch episode in 2013.
However the second episode of MasterChef on Tuesday night was up 100,000 on episode 2 last year, beating House Rules in Sydney and Melbourne.
Shine's The Voice was Monday night’s No. 1 show in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Nine’s The Big Bang Theory dominated its timeslot with a national audience of 1.915 million viewers.
The top rating show on pay-TV was showcase’s Game of Thrones which had an aggregate audience of 248,000.