The Voice return draws lowest launch figures to date

The return of Nine’s The Voice for its fourth season drew 1.557 million metro viewers last night.

Sydney remains the show’s biggest market with 491,000 viewers. It is followed by Melbourne (458,000), Brisbane (300,000), Adelaide (156,000) and Perth (153,000).

It was the top rating show of the night, leading in the key advertising 25—54, 18–49 and 16–39 demographics.

But it was also The Voice’s lowest launch figures to date. Last year’s return drew 2.155 million metro viewers.

The 2014 season saw it continually shed viewers, with its grand finale getting 1.6 million metros tune in. The figure had been 2 million in 2013 and 2.6 million in 2012.

After last year’s grand finale, the show’s producers promised a revamp of the format.

Last night’s show was more tightly edited, with at least two contestants showing the juice they could make it to the end. Of the new judges, English singer Jessie J made an immediate impact, despite the fact that she was still in great pain after a “mysterious” operation last week.

The Voice continues to draw brands. Nine Entertainment’s Group Sales & Marketing Director Peter Wiltshire pointed out that last year, the show attracted 1.7 million viewers for each episode, “and over 10 million short-form and two million long-form streams were viewed online.”

Aside from the arrival of Cadbury as a new sponsor, as reported in TMN last week, Ford, KFC and Swisse are back. New team-ups are with Guvera, Sage Institute of Education, People’s Choice Credit Union and Automasters.

Ford Australia, in its fourth year, introduced a new app which offers viewers instant replays of performances, exclusive content, the chance to vote, play along in real time and become the fifth Coach.

Guvera’s involvement as official music streaming partner is to offer a Voice music channel, which will stream original music from the show and performance recordings from the Top 16.