The Bachelorette Australia viewers tune out as ratings dive for Georgia Love

Why don’t we care about Georgia Love’s search for a soulmate?

Ten blokes remain but already viewers have written-off the television journalist’s stint on The Bachelor Australia as boring.

Critics have gone even further, accusing the career-driven brunette ofdumbing herself down for her male suitors.

After the overripe melodrama of last season – in which Sam Frost had a second chance at love after being jilted by fiancee Blake Garvey – both Love and love this season never really had a chance.

Just 561,000 viewers tuned in to The Bachelorette Australia in the capital cities on Wednesday night, seeing it finish in 16th place. That’s only 1000 more viewers than brand new local Ten drama The Wrong Girl.

The premiere in September didn’t rate much better. Audience numbers came in at 655,000, lower than the likes of Border Security: Australia’s Front Line and Home and Away.

Rewind to Sam Frost’s debut, which was watched by 875,000 people, and it’s clear audience numbers have dropped by more than 200,000 in the space of a year.

Ratings for Frost’s season didn’t drop below 850,000 and the finale was a triumph for Ten, pulling in 1.5 million viewers.

But ratings for the current season have hovered around 600,000 – a disaster considering Ten have placed it in the primetime 7.30pm slot.

The Bachelorette Australia has struggled against The Block and Home and Away, and now it must compete with The X Factor as well.

So what’s different this time around?

Firstly, viewers knew of Sam Frost. After being dumped by Blake Garvey following his proposal on The Bachelor Australia finale in 2014, audiences were emotionally invested in her story.

The series played heavily on her heartbreak and her triumphant return to love with tradie Sasha Mielczarek.

But Georgia Love came as a mystery. Viewers have since learned that she’s smart, funny and a poster girl for 2016; and that she’s given up her news reporter gig in Tasmania to chase love, but that doesn’t necessarily make her endearing.

Then there is Richie Strahan. A Bachelor has never been so disliked since Garvey dumped Frost for third runner-up, Louise Pillidge.

Stiff and unnatural, by the time Strahan picked single mother Alex Nation over fan favourite Nikki Gogan on this season of The Bachelor Australia, he was already public enemy number one.

As Love made her screen debut just one week later, dumbstruckBachelor Australia fans were still leaving abusive messages on Strahan’s Instagram. We weren’t ready for Love or love.

When Frost fronted-up to the Bachelorette mansion last year, audiences were still riding high from Bachelor Sam Wood choosing single mother Snezana Markoski as his beloved that season.

There is also something to be said for the fact that Love is a strong woman who doesn’t pull any punches. She’s got a better career than most of the blokes on the show and last week she called out contestant Courtney for not taking her feelings seriously.

Half of the guys on the series appear intimidated by Love, while critics claim she alienates audiences with the stiff, on-screen presence she has honed through years of TV journalism.

Networks have a long history of suffocating the programs they love. Ten had to bring MasterChef Australia back from the brink after a number of spin-offs left viewers with a bad taste in their mouth.

Over on Nine, The Block‘s ratings have also been on the slide ever since the network started pumping out two seasons each year. In 2015, the show recorded its worst finale ratings in five years.

Affairs of the heart are a serious thing. Audiences weren’t ready for another round in the ring just days after Richie Strahan broke their hearts.

Perhaps Ten needs to give The Bachelorette Australia space to stand on its own two feet?

The Bachelorette Australia airs Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm on Ten. 

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/reality/the-bachelorette-australia-viewers-tune-out-as-ratings-dive-for-georgia-love-20161007-grxfwh.html