Nine’s opening game of the NRL – which saw Melbourne down Brisbane 22-12 – pulled in a respectable 458,000 for broadcaster Nine last night.

Some 246,000 Sydney metro and 212,000 Brisbane metro viewers tuned in according to the OzTAM numbers.

However, it wasn’t enough to hand Nine a win. Seven took the audience share honours with 29.6 per cent, Nine had 28.2 per cent, 10 pulled 19 per cent, the ABC had 16.2 per cent and SBS took home 6.9 per cent.

10 had a win with Googlebox (645,000), the fifth most watched show of the evening and the most watched entertainment show.

When it came to the stragglers, Seven’s Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries (346,000) and 10’s Show Me The Movie! (326,000) and a repeat of Hughesy We Have A Problem (272,000) all got marked with a “try harder”.

Seven’s 6pm news was the most watched show of Thursday with 925,000. The Chase (529,000) and Home And Away (524,000) were the network’s other standouts.

Nine’s 6pm news enjoyed 844,000, ACA had 611,000 and Hot Seat pulled 453,000.

The ABC’s night ran thus: 7pm news (634,000), 7.30 (583,000) and Escape From The City (450,000).