Australia has fallen in love with Sophie Monk all over again, more than a decade after she first appeared on Australian television screens.
The Bachelorette's third season debuted with 1.22 million viewers nationally, the biggest audience for any Australian version of The Bachelor or Bachelorette to date.
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Bachelorette 2017: 'Man Buns' perform for Sophie
Sam and Harry jump, spin and flip but do they have the chops to impress the newest Bachelorette, singer and entertainer Sophie Monk? Vision: The Bachelorette, Network Ten.
The Block was the most-watched non-news program of the night with 1.026 million but The Bachelorette came a close second with a metropolitan audience of 952,000.
The first night numbers might have been very different had Sophie Monk not had her way in the first place.
Speaking to 2DayFM's Em Rusciano and Harley Breen on Thursday morning, she revealed Ten didn't ask her to star in the reality TV show. Instead, she joked that she "begged" to be on the program.
"It was like a week of talking," she said. "I went to them. They didn't want me! I said to them, please? How desperate - they didn't even ask me. I begged. I flew myself and everything."
Monk has previously talked about how she felt ill on the first day of filming and second-guessed whether she should have agreed to star in the dating show at all.
It appears the risk has paid off, with her honesty and dry sense of humour delivering Ten it's biggest ever Bachelorette launch.
SO OVER Reality TV until last night #BacheloretteAU @sophiemonk
— Charlotte Musolino (@CharlotteMusoli) September 21, 2017
Sophie Monk is the bachelorette that Australia deserves #BacheloretteAU
— ChloRyan0 (@ChloRyan0) September 21, 2017
Well last night cured any doubt I had of #sophiemonk being the next #BacheloretteAU ... she's worth her weight in gold! @BacheloretteAU
— Steph Terrance (@MrsSTerrance) September 20, 2017