1.7m tune in to final State of Origin game losing 714,000 viewers from last year
1.7m metro viewers tuned in to watch the final leg of the 2018 State of Origin series on Nine last night as the Queensland Maroons won over the New South Wales Blues, who had already clinched the series in first two matches.
The final game, which kicked off at 8.10pm in Sydney, was the lowest rating match out of the three games shedding 579,000 viewers from the first game and 390,000 viewers from the second match.
Down the hatch! ?#uptheblues pic.twitter.com/2b8vbo7yeP
— NSW Blues ? (@NSWRL) July 11, 2018
Despite viewers already knowing the winning team with New South Wales Blues winning two out of the three games, Hamish Turner, program director at Nine told Mumbrella he thought the final game would “probably have a similar audience to that of the second Origin match”.
According to OzTAM’s preliminary metro ratings, the second State of Origin match attracted 2.09m metro viewers.
This year’s final game was down 714,000 viewers from last year when 2.488m viewers tuned in to watch New South Wales Blues and Queensland Maroons battle it out for the shield.
Last night, the third State of Origin match was the most watched program across the key advertising demographics 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54, as well as being the most watched program overall.
In Sydney alone, the final game saw 772,000 tune in while Brisbane managed 608,000 viewers. Meanwhile, the pre match managed 820,000 viewers while the post match attracted 565,000.
Meanwhile, in the 7.30pm time slot, Ten’s Masterchef managed 747,000 metro viewers edging out House Rules’ 610,000 metro viewers.
In the news battle, Seven News saw 1.134m metro viewers tune in ahead of Nine News’ 943,000.
With help from the State or Origin, Nine was the clear winner of the night with an overall audience share of 31.8% beating Seven’s 16.6%, Ten’s 11.2%, ABC’s 8.9% and SBS’ 5.9% share.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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