It was another huge night of Olympics coverage, but as we approach the start of week two, numbers have seen a bit of a drop. The 7-9 p.m. session achieved a total TV national reach of 3,954,000, down from 5,331,000 the night before.
This is likely in part due to the NRL taking over Nine’s coverage as the Wests Tigers took on the North Queensland Cowboys from 7:50pm. A mid-second half send off saw the Leichhardt Oval showdown saw the boys in Black and Orange succumb 48 points to 30, all but solidifying their third wooden spoon in a row.
As the footy finished up, all eyes switched back to the Olympics, with the 9-11:30pm session raking in a total TV national reach of 3,271,000, down slightly from the previous night’s 4,179,000.
As the day’s events got underway in Paris, the Aussies dominated the United States in Women’s 3×3 Basketball and later dominated Canada in the Women’s Basketball group phase.
Our Men then took to the pools, beating the hosting nation 9-8 in the Water Polo prelim round.
The overnight coverage, both live and in replays, will likely be in hot demand today after the Aussies’ huge success in swimming. In the early hours of this morning, Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell, and Ariarne Titmus raced to gold in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay with an Olympic record time of 7:38.08.
There was also some intense controversy overnight as Italian boxer Angela Carini pulled out of the games mid-fight after she sustained a series of crunching blows from her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif.
“I have never been hit so hard in my life. It’s up to the IOC to judge,” Carini reportedly said after the match.
