Just how many people watched Real Housewives last night?

It's dominated news headlines all week but was that enough to get viewers tuning in to the Real Housewives of Auckland last night?

Nielsen figures show the reality series has struggled to attract viewers following its debut episode, which was simulcast across TV3 and Bravo.

The series premiere last month saw more than 120,000 viewers aged 25-54 tune in.

Since then, the series has broadcast exclusively on Bravo and attracted fewer than 70,000 viewers aged 25-54 per episode.

But despite the controversy surrounding last night's episode, which saw lawyers called in to try to prevent parts of it going to air, the network failed to see a significant spike in ratings.

In fact, the episode attracted just 9000 more viewers (aged 25-54) than the previous week, according to Nielsen ratings.

Episode six saw 48,000 viewers aged 25-54 tune in, compared to 39,000 the previous week. Those figures don't take into account viewers who watched online or time-shifted viewing (people watching on MySky or PLUS 1 channels).