MKR could face chop over poor ratings

New Zealand My Kitchen Rules' future is in doubt after it failed to draw big viewer numbers.

It's looking unlikely a second series of My Kitchen Rules New Zealand will get the go ahead, after the cooking series served up disappointing ratings.

Last night's grand final drew just 400,870 viewers - nearly 200,000 less than tuned into the Masterchef final in May, also on TV One.

When the series debuted in August, Television New Zealand defended the initial numbers saying it was a series that would "build momentum".

But as MKR NZ entered finals week, that momentum failed to eventuate.

When the series premiered in August, 392,500 viewers tuned in to watch.

Compare that to Sunday night's semi-final, which attracted just 316,000 viewers, or Tuesday's episode, which saw 354,000 people tune in to see Aaron and Heather proceed to the final.

By comparison, the final of this year's Australian MKR series, which screened on TV2, drew close to 550,000 viewers.

The cooking series has been locked in a reality ratings war with TV3's DIY series, The Block, which started the same week as MKR NZ and has seen the two programmes go head-to-head every Tuesday and Wednesday night.

While MKR has maintained an overall lead with viewers age 5+, The Block has consistently led the ratings war in the programmes' target demographic of viewers age 25-54.

One media commentator, Martin Gillman, labelled the move "kamikaze programming" and believed the move diminished both programmes' ratings by splitting the audience.

TVNZ acknowledged it had been aggressive in its scheduling tactics, with spokesperson Georgie Hills saying: "We made it clear last year that we gave it a free run and we would not do the same in 2014."

But with the series now off-air, Mediaworks will be hoping to see a spike in The Block ratings as they head towards the live auction final, which saw more than a million viewers tune in last year.