In what I can only assume is a display of disinterest in the “looking for lurve” angle the show has taken this year, the ratings for the debut episode of The Biggest Loser Australia are well down on last year.

Last year the show opened with an audience of 1.42 million. This year a mere 897,000 tuned in.

For those aged 16 to 39 the show lost almost half its audience, going from 646,000 viewers in 2011 to 334,000 last night. Among those aged 25 to 54 it went from 879,000 in 2011 to 485,000.

(Source: News.com.au )

Not great news for the show, though not disastrous enough to justify canning it just yet. Channel 10 will be hoping the prospect of some in-house romance and a proven formula is enough to keep folks in the Biggest Loser camp, rather than swapping over to Channel 9’s Excess Baggage next week.

Time will tell.