The NRL season kicked off on Channel Nine last night with the ‘Grand Opener’ helping it win more than 28 per cent of the audience share on the main channel, despite only airing in two markets.
Nine had 756,000 people watching in Sydney and Brisbane for the NRL season opener in which the Sydney South Rabbitohs defeated the Sydney Roosters, gaining the biggest audience of the night in both markets. Seven had 869,000 people watching Home and Away from 7pm until 8pm and 819,000 for Border Security, on until 8.30pm.
Meanwhile The Block had 644,000 metro viewers in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, from 7.30pm to 8.30pm, ranking 15th for the night despite only being aired in Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. The Block was also the second most timeshifted show gaining 118,000 viewers during the last seven days.
The Footy Show followed the game in Sydney and Brisbane at 9.30pm and was on at 8.30pm in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, taking in a total of 787,000 viewers.
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Meanwhile Seven ran two episodes of Bones between 8.30pm and 10.30pm, taking in 528,000 for the first episode at 8.30pm across the five cities. Anh Does Iceland was rested last night, after Anh Does Scandinavia averaged 630,000 for Channel Seven last week. The second instalment will screen later this year.
ABC1 was third in the 8pm timeslot with The Checkout taking in 758,000 viewers across the five cities from 8pm. And the second episode of the ABC’s new legal drama Janet King averaged 754,000 for ABC1 from 8.30pm. Janet King was also the most timeshifted show as its audience increased by 140,000 viewers during the seven days to 959,000 in total.
Channel Ten’s top program was Ten Eyewitness News with 553,000. The Biggest Loser grabbed 392,000 viewers, its best outing of the week at 7.30pm, while Law and Order SVU got 409,000 at 8.30pm, and an encore screening of new show Secrets and Lies’ first episode grabbed another 279,000 viewers, 28th overall for the night, after winning 403,000 for its debut on Monday.
However Ten’s share was just 8.7 per cent, meaning the channel has not managed a double-digit audience share this week.
Nine won the night with a 28.5 per cent share of the audience as Seven had 17.9 per cent and ABC1 had 13.9 per cent share. SBS One again finished behind two digital stations with a 3.9 per cent share.
Sunrise took the crown in the breakfast battle with 348,000 as Today had 258,000 on Channel Nine. Wake Up had 28,000 metro viewers on Ten and Studio 10 had 38,000. The Morning Show had 180,000 viewers on Seven and Mornings had 85,000 on Channel Nine.
Thursday’s top 15 shows:
- Nine News Nine 1.034m
- Nine News 6:30 Nine 982,000
- Seven News Seven 938,000
- Seven News / Today Tonight Seven 886,000
- Home and Away Seven 869,000
- A Current Affair Nine 866,000
- ABC News ABC1 859,000
- Border Security – Australia’s Front Line Seven 819,000
- 7.30 ABC1 804,000
- The Footy Show Nine 787,000
- The Checkout ABC1 758,000
- Thursday Night NRL Live Nine 756,000
- Janet King ABC1 754,000
- ABC News Update ABC1 683,000
- The Block: Fans v Faves Nine 644,000
Thursday’s share:
- Nine 28.5%
- Seven 17.9%
- ABC1 13.9%
- TEN 8.7%
- 7mate 4.6%
- GO! 4.0%
- SBS ONE 3.9%
- 7TWO 3.9%
- ELEVEN 3.2%
- ABC2 3.0%
- Gem 2.7%
- ONE 2.1%
- ABC3 1.4%
- ABC News 24 1.3%
- SBS 2 0.8%
- NITV 0.1%
Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. Rankings and increases based on individual episodes.