New look Kiwi Living fails to draw new viewers

Kiwi Living

returned to our screens last Friday featuring a brand new look and new presenter line up.

But TVNZ's attempts to add some star factor to the show - signing up supermodel Kylie Bax and league star Monty Betham - has done little to draw in new viewers.

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Instead, the second series debuted to its lowest ratings to date - with 307,000 Kiwis tuning in, just 85,000 of which were aged 25-54, according to Nielsen.

Last year, the 20-episode season averaged 366,000 viewers per week, of which 109,000 were aged 25-54.

The revamped line up saw several presenters dropped from the programme - including Matt Gibb, Erin Simpson and Lee-Anne Wann.

Miriama Kamo is now the sole host, with her former co-host Mike Van de Elzen kicked off the couch and out into the field, where he hosts travel and cooking segments.

Herald TV writer Calum Henderson enjoyed the new changes, hailing them as an improvement and describing the show as "a warm soothing bath".

He said it was a welcome alternative to the "raucous Friday night schedules" of other channels.

One of those is TV3, which screens Jono and Ben at 7.30pm and is also struggling with a decline in ratings.

Last year, the local comedy series averaged 214,000 viewers per episode across 27 weeks. 129,000 of those were aged 25-54.

This year, the series has averaged 181,000 viewers across seven weeks, down 15 per cent on last year. It has also seen an 11 per cent decrease in the 25-54 demographic, with an average of 115,000 viewers tuning in each week.

- nzherald.co.nz