House Rules season premiere plunges more than 100,000 viewers

House Rules: High Stakes premiered on Channel Seven with a two-part episode on Monday night.

But just 679,000 metro viewers tuned in for part one, representing a drop of more than 100,000 viewers from last year’s premiere.

It appears Australians are switching off reality shows in favour of news programs like ABC News, 7:30 and A Current Affair during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Decline: Monday night’s season premiere of House Rules: High Stakes lost more than 100,000 viewers from last year. Pictured: House Rules contestants Carly and Andrew 

Last year’s season premiere brought in 782,000 metro viewers, meaning that in the space of a year, viewership has dropped by more than 13 per cent. 

The second part of Monday night’s episode saw 19,000 viewers tune out as the audience dropped to 660,000. 

House Rules’ second part began at the same time as ABC current affairs program 7:30, which brought in 885,000 viewers in the five capital cities.

The renovation show narrowly beat Channel 10’s The Project, which was airing at the same time, by 45,000 viewers.

Losing viewers: Last year’s season premiere brought in 782,000 metro viewers, meaning that in the space of a year, viewership has dropped by more than 13 per cent. Pictured: judges Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (left), Saul Myers (second from left) and Kyly Clarke (centre) with new hosts Abbey Gelmi (second from right) and Jamie Durie (right)

Even Channel Seven’s own late afternoon quiz show The Chase beat House Rules with 691,000 metro viewers. 

Fortunately for the network, Seven News was the most-watched news program of the night with 1,293,000 viewers – beating Nine News by 55,000 viewers.

But overall, it was Nine that dominated the night with a 27.3 per cent audience share. Seven came in second with 26.7 per cent and ABC in third with 22.7 per cent. 

Beaten: House Rules’ second part began at the same time as ABC current affairs program 7:30, which brought in 885,000 viewers in the five capital cities. Pictured: 7:30 host Leigh Sales

During Monday’s episode of House Rules: High Stakes, eight new teams were introduced and tasked with transforming a penthouse in a 32-storey apartment complex on the Gold Coast. 

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to escalate in Australia. 

As of Tuesday, there are 5,895 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country, including 45 deaths. 

Pandemic: As of Tuesday, there are 5,895 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, including 45 deaths