Nine dumps tanking Reno Rumble from primetime slot in favour of Married at First Sight

Channel Nine has dropped misfiring Reno Rumble from the 7.30pm time slot from next week, switching it with its surprise hit of last year Married at First Sight.

Nine has decided to move the M rated show to the earlier timeslot – thought to be the first time a show with that classification has been aired at that slot since rules were relaxed – after Reno Rumble failed to break 450,000 metro viewers in its first four outings.

It will now be shown at 8.50pm on Mondays and 8.50pm on Tuesdays, with repeats of the Big Bang Theory filling the hole at 7.30pm on Wednesdays.

Nine gambled launching the renovation show, a spin off from the hugely popular series The Block and featuring hosts Scott Cam and Shelley Craft, last Monday in the hopes of attracting viewers from Seven’s My Kitchen Rules.

However cooking proved far more sticky, grabbing over 1m viewers against Reno Rumble, whichdebuted with 395,000viewers, managed397,000 on Tuesdaywith a big lead in from the news following the Brussels attacks, dropping to375,000 on Wednesday.

Nine gambled moving the fourth episode to Easter Sunday but that only took 440,000 in the absence of strong competition. Last week and this week are non-ratings periods for all the networks, so the poor performance will not count to Nine’s final figures for the year.

Last year the show managed 875,000 viewers on debut.

Last year Married at First Sight proved a hit averaging over 1m viewers per episode for the show which pairs up couples who meet for the first time on the altar and live with each other for several weeks before deciding whether to stay together or split up.

Nine will be hoping it can rate well for them after Seven got off to a strong start to the year thanks to strong performances from My Kitchen Rules.

Alex Hayes