TV Wrap: State of Origin audience falls in game 2, Nine wins tight first half of 2021
Nine’s coverage of the second 2021 State of Origin game brought in an average of 1.862 million metro viewers (2.701 million nationally), as the Blues dominated the Maroons to wrap up the series.
That figure was down on game one which had 1.911 million metro viewers, but was higher than game two of 2020 which aired in November and brought in 1.654 million viewers in metro markets.
Game two easily won all three key advertising demos on Sunday.
Last night’s #StateOfOrigin saw an average national audience of 2.701m (5 City: 1.862m Reg: 840,000) tune in to watch the NSW defeat QLD in Round 2. pic.twitter.com/MqzfmICfgY
— Nine Comms (@9Comms) June 27, 2021
Origin was easily the #1 program overnight, with Nine’s pre-match (1.006 million metro viewers) and post-match (722,000) programming also both landing in the top five programs on Sunday.
In other non-news, MasterChef Australia had 601,000 metro viewers for Ten, while Grand Designs on ABC had 493,000 metro viewers and Seven’s AFL broadcast had 438,000 metro viewers.
The #1 news of the night was Seven with 1.201 million viewers in metro markets.
Origin also delivered Nine a 40.9% network share, easily beating Seven with 21.8%, Ten with 16.4% and ABC with 13.7%. Channel Nine was also the #1 primary channel on a 34.5% share.
Nine will hope Origin’s performance will help it wrestle back momentum this week from Seven, who recorded another network share win for the TV week ending June 26.
Seven won its ninth survey week of 2021, equalling Nine which also has nine wins. A 30.4% share gave Seven the win last week, ahead of Nine’s 27.7%, Ten with 18.4% and ABC with 15.7%.
The halfway point in the calendar year has been reached with Nine just ahead in network share so far. Nine has a 28.5% share across the year, ahead of Seven with 27.8%.
Seven and Nine end the calendar year tied on nine ratings weeks each
Nine’s director of television, Michael Healy, said: “I am incredibly proud that once again our content slate has resonated so strongly with the audiences we program for. I’d like to thank our dedicated team for creating Australia’s most-watched programs across all platforms.”
Seven was bullish about its own improving results, and managing director and CEO, James Warburton, said: “Our strategy of investing in new and proven content across television and digital is delivering powerful results.”
Seven’s director of network programming, Angus Ross, added: “After a successful first half, we are ready to deliver our strongest second-half content line-up in many years, with the best sport on TV, the best news and public affairs content, and an impressive collection of proven entertainment hits.
Meanwhile, Ten celebrated the end of the calendar year by hailing its “continued success” in “the youngest network”.
Ten ViacomCBS, SVP content and programming, Daniel Monaghan, said: “We have seen some incredible competition in this first half across the commercial free-to-air television networks, which is great news for the overall television landscape.
“The competition is set to heat up when we launch some fantastic new shows which will only strengthen our under 50s programming and boost our network share.”
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Zanda Wilson was a reporter and podcast producer at Mumbrella, specialising in radio reporting. He left Mumbrella in September 2021.
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