The Rugby League Grand Final was a ratings firecracker for Nine on Sunday evening, helping the network take 40.1% of all free-to-air viewers and overtake Seven.
The Grand Final wooed 2.179 million viewers to Nine with the majority, 1.049 million, from Sydney, according to OzTam’s preliminary metro ratings.
The actual sports broadcast may have won top spot but The X Factor fans remained loyal with the singing competition on Seven winning more viewers than the Rugby’s entertainment.
The X Factor was watched by 1.246 million viewers, narrowly ahead of Nine’s broadcast of the Rugby League Entertainment (1.233 million).
Grand Final viewers more than halved when it came to handing over the trophies with the Presentation watched by just 1.032 million people.
In comparison, the majority of AFL fans stayed tuned to Seven’s sports broadcast of the entire 2013 Grand Final with 2.467 million staying to watch the Presentations.
Across Australia, 3.631 million people watched the Hawks defeat Fremantle on September 28. The day time broadcast is superior to Nine's prime-time result.
Nine’s share on Sunday night was a total 41.3% with 35.1% going to the network’s primary channel.
On AFL Grand Final day Seven took a whopping 80.1% of all FTA viewers during the broadcast.
Meanwhile, on Sunday Seven won a total 27.3% of all viewers with 20.5% going to Seven’s main channel.
Ten won a combined 14.6% with 9.1% of that won by the network’s primary channel.
The ABC sat on 13% with 9.6% for ABC One while SBS took 3.9% and SBS One won 3.2%.