Fremantle delivered one of the most dramatic turnarounds of the AFL season on Saturday night, overturning a 34-point deficit to defeat Sydney 111-73 in front of a captivated TV audience.
On Seven, The Dockers were held scoreless through the entire first half, with the Swans looking set to run away with the contest.
But Fremantle flipped the game entirely after halftime, piling on 100 points across the third and fourth quarters.
The result was sealed by an extraordinary nine-goal final term, that handed Sydney a heavy defeat. The clash topped the night with a Total TV National Reach of 2,176,000 and a Total TV National Audience of 930,000.
Elsewhere in game formats, both Nine’s Tipping Point and Seven’s The Chase Australia continued their gradual climb back up the rankings, each format showing renewed strength in its respective timeslot as audiences return to the long-running favourites.
Nine’s show came in fourth with a national reach of 1,631,000 and an average audience of 861,000. Seven’s competitor was close behind in sixth with a national reach of 1,401,000 and an average audience of 717,000.
On Nine, Thursday night brought NRLW action, with Brisbane getting the better of Cronulla 22-16 in a tightly fought contest between the Sharks and the Broncos. There was no men’s NRL fixture for Thursday night, with State of Origin having already claimed the Wednesday timeslot earlier in the week. It came in eight with a nation reach of 1,128,000 and an average audience of 255,000.
Taskmaster Australia capped off its season as Ten’s strongest performer of the night. The finale delivered blindfolded comedians left stumbling their way through the final team task, Brett Blake finally getting his long-awaited chance to detonate some explosives, and the series concluding with the crowning of a winner. It had a national reach of 750,000 and an average audience of 413,000.
ABC’s top-rating entertainment slot went to Back Roads, where host Lisa Millar journeyed to Augusta, on Western Australia’s southwestern tip. It came in seventeenth with a reach of 687,000 and an average audience of 480,000.
