Last night’s NRL grand final not only proved a winner for the Penrith Panthers (beating Souths 14-12 in a thriller), but for broadcaster Nine with the match pulling 2.2 million viewers according to OzTAM metro numbers. Nine have stated a further 363,000 watched the game on 9Now.
However, half-a-million viewers (presumably angry Souths fans) didn’t bother to stick around for the trophy presentation. It dropped to 1.794 million viewers.
The game’s pre-match entertainment pulled just over the million-mark, while 931,000 hung around for the post-match analysis.
Some 1.1 million fans tuned in from Sydney, Brisbane had 558,000 viewers and 313,000 Melburnians watched the game. Not a bad effort, considering the absence of the Storm this year.
The numbers were slightly up on 2020’s decider against the Storm and the Panthers that pulled 2.103 million. Although that game was played much later in the season due to COVID restrictions.
Last night’s game was the most watched NRL grand final since 2016 when the Sharks beat the Storm.
As expected, broadcaster Nine easily won the night with 47.1 per cent of all of last night’s eyeballs (all channels). Seven was a distant second with 19.8 per cent, 10 took third with 13.8 per cent, the ABC did 11.5 per cent and SBS had 7.7 per cent.
Despite all eyes on the footy, Seven’s 6pm news bulletin (a neat one million) still managed to beat Nine’s news (924,000).
Other standouts for Seven included Homicide: With Ron Iddles (492,000), Manhunt: The Night Stalker (385,000) and Border Security: Australia’s Frontline (335,000).
10’s best were The Masked Singer (380,000), The Sunday Project (306,000) and 10 News First (275,000).
The ABC’s evening went this way – 7pm news (563,000), Restoration Australia (385,000) and Fires (295,000).
