State of Origin game two draws 2.09m viewers
The second State of Origin match for 2018 brought in 2.09m metro viewers for Nine, according to OzTAM’s preliminary overnight ratings.
New South Wales’ first State of Origin series victory in four years was down on last year’s second match according to OzTam’s overnight figures, despite an expectation that shifting the game to a primetime Sunday slot would help pull in more viewers.
However the time adjusted figures, provided by Nine, put the average metro audience at 2.123m.
The 7:50pm kick off brought in 880,000 viewers in Sydney, where the match was played, along with 720,000 in Brisbane.
The figures were down on the first clash, which was broadcast on the traditional Wednesday evening and achieved 2.353m metro viewers. The game was one of only a few times the State of Origin has ever been played on the weekend.
The game also topped the key advertising demographics, achieving the top spots in age groups 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54.
In what proved to be a great evening for sport, England beat Panama 6-1 in the World Cup, pulling in 566,000 metro viewers for SBS in the later 9:30pm time slot.
Seven’s news program was the second most-watched program of the night, pulling in 1.160m viewers.
The network’s renovation program House Rules pulled in 948,000.
The State of Origin provided Nine with a huge 32.6% main channel share. Seven’s offerings meant it won 16.7% of audience on its main channel, while the World Cup gave SBS a 9.3% share.
Ten’s Masterchef, which pulled in 731,000 viewers, meant it pulled slightly ahead of SBS with a main channel share of 10.2%.
ABC’s news show and drama Mystery Road helped the broadcaster to a 8.6% main channel share.
