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New-look Biggest Loser Transformed debuts to dreadful ratings on Channel Ten

The makeover show barely made the top 20 with its season debut. Is the end near for Loser?

Michael Lallo

Is the new-look Biggest Loser dead on arrival? 

Channel Ten's makeover show – now called The Biggest Loser: Transformed – suffered its worst-ever season launch on Tuesday night, averaging just 450,000 city viewers. 

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Trailer: The Biggest Loser: Transformed

Network Ten is relaunching the weightloss reality TV program with a more body-positive message at its core.

This compares to the 647,000 who watched Loser's debut in 2015 (the last year in which it aired). When the series began in 2006, it averaged 1.41 million metropolitan viewers.

Tuesday's episode ranked 17th on the ratings ladder, well behind its direct competitors including Nine's Married at First Sight (No.1, with a city average of 1.15 million) and Seven's My Kitchen Rules (No.2, on 1.04 million).

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Ten had hoped Loser's new-look format would be a hit with Australians. Producers say they are focusing less on body fat, and more on holistic "transformations".

The show fills the spot vacated by I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here, which grew its national audience by 9 per cent this year.

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With Loser now airing four nights a week – in the vital 7.30pm slot – Ten will need to see some improvement. Soon.

Programming chief Beverley McGarvey is backing the series.

"The Biggest Loser: Transformed is a strong, positive and entertaining show and we are confident Australians will embrace it," she says.

"Judging it on the basis of one night's overnight TV ratings is premature. The feedback from critics and on social media has been extremely positive. The transformations of the contestants over the next eight weeks are amazing."

To be fair, Loser's 450,000 city average is not the final word. Once regional viewers are included, its debut climbs to 610,000. This will increase further over the next month, with the addition of time-shifted ratings (viewers who record and watch within 28 days) and Video Player Measurement ratings (online audiences). 

Consider My Kitchen Rules, which averaged 1.05 million viewers in the five major cities on March 7. One week later – after time-shifted, regional and video ratings are added – its audience jumps to 1.77 million.

While Loser's poor debut is a blow for Ten, McGarvey is right: it's too early to write it off.

The show has been "resting" since 2015, giving fans more than a year to sample rival programs on Seven and Nine.

And Ten has pitted the refreshed series against two successful programs, both of which have been broadcasting since January this year. So far, MKR is averaging 1.24 million viewers in the capitals. And the ever-growing Married At First Sight is averaging 1.12 million. 

While Nine and Seven have dialled up the drama on their long-running franchises (boosting Married at First Sight in particular), Loser's producers have toned it down a little. In place of screaming trainers and sobbing contestants, for instance, we've got promos with uplifting music. 

This might help lure new viewers – but it won't happen overnight.

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