Taboola reveals which reality show is dominating online readership

Taboola, a global leader in powering recommendations for the open web has delved into its pageview data from Taboola’s publisher network that reflects online traffic from the last 90 days.

Readership data is aggregated across a network of users on a multitude of publisher sites in Australia, protecting individuals' privacy while informing advertisers about the interests of their audience.

What people read about changes depending on what they are going through and what's happening in the world. This is what makes readership data reliably current for advertisers seeking to know what's on their audience's mind. It can lead to the discovery of seemingly “new" or unexpected topics their audience is reading about.

So, what are the top topics consuming Australians at the moment? It’s all about the TV networks’ flagship reality shows, Married At First Sight (MAFS) on Nine, Australian Survivor: Heroes vs Villains on Network 10 and the rebooted Australian Idol on the Seven Network.

These three reality shows are attracting big numbers in online reading from news and entertainment websites as viewers flock to them eager to read more about show recaps, gossip and theories.

MAFS is dominating online reading by Australians – with 7.6 million pageviews in the past 10 days, up 1151% and peaking at 500,270 on 8 February when the cheating scandal was revealed.

MAFS groom Harrison, who has had his share of scandals, alone has seen 361,000 pageviews over the period, up 100%.

Australian Idol, which returned to TV screens after a 14 year hiatus, has attracted online reading interest, but falls far behind interest in MAFS, with 1.9 million pageviews, up 471%. Interest spiked to 207,440 pageviews on 25 January, before the show went to air and when judges and contestants started to be revealed.

Idol had its second best peak in online reading the day after the show launched on 30 January, with interest slowly waning since.

Interest in Australian Survivor: Heroes vs Villains is nowhere near attracting the same interest as MAFS and Idol, with 13,000 pageviews, up 100%.

Online reading peaked on 14 February when Benjamin Law led his team to victory by using AUSLAN to help the heroes crack the code. Reading peaked again on 21 February when the biggest mystery of the series so far – dubbed the Cookie Idol was revealed for contestant Simon.

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