State of Origin kicked arse last night in the TV ratings, hooking in a whopping 2.478 million viewers for Nine, helping to pull the network to a total combined share of 44.6%.
The share for Nine’s primary channel, 37.4% was 14.2% higher even than Seven’s total combined share for the night, which rested on 23.2%, according to OzTam preliminary ratings.
The actual State of Origin Game 1 match (which saw the NSW Blues claim victory) pulled 2.596 viewers (including the 109,000 in Perth who watched the game on Nine’s channel GEM), in a five city metro.
Taking into account those who in regional Australia who tuned in, the viewer number shoots up to 4.085 million.
The pre-match viewership on Nine’s primary channel drew in 1.714 million people, while the post-match saw a dip to 1.348.
Seven came second for the night overall with a total share of 23.2%, with its main channel nabbing 16.8% of the network’s share.
Seven’s most watched, non-news program was Home and Away with 940,000 viewers and finding itself in ninth place.
Ten came third with a total share of 16.2% with the network’s most watched show being Masterchef with 779,000 viewers in 11th place.
Ten’s primary station had a share of 11.5%.
ABC came in fourth with a total share of 12%, ABC1 seeing 7.7%. SBS came fifth with a share of 4%, SBS One seeing 3.3%.