Origin, you monster. Good on Queensland for winning — particularly for the likes of Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater and Jonathan Thurston (who deserved to go out on a high last night).

The game averaged 3.65 million viewers nationally — a high for the series (and for all programs) this year  so far. There were 2.48 million metro viewers and 1.39 million regional viewers — also both highs for the year. The Brisbane audience was 867,000, the highest of the series. But for a game that was hyped as much as it was, the audiences fell far short of games in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.  

Next for Nine, the Ninjas on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night and Seven can go back to contemplating misery with Behave Yourself and Yummy Mummies. For the rest, it didn’t matter. The ratings for Offspring (618,000 nationally) and Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell (668,000 nationally) were squashed last night , though Gerard Henderson and his curious media obsessions were sent up very nicely on Mad As Hell. And poor Nina’s desire for domestic tranquility continues. Perhaps she should have watched the Origin game and barracked for Queensland.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (47.6%)
  2. Seven 19.6%)
  3. Ten (14.9%)
  4. ABC (11.6%)
  5. SBS (6.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (40.5%)
  2. Seven (13.5%)
  3. Ten (10.8%)
  4. ABC (7.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.7%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. Gem (2.7%)
  2. GO (2.6%)
  3. 7TWO,7mate (2.2%)
  4. ABC 2, ONE  (2.1%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. State of Origin Game 3 (Nine) — 3.652 million
  2. State of Origin Post-Match (Nine) — 2.229 million
  3. State of Origin Pre-Match (Nine) — 2.020 million
  4. Seven News  — 1.714 million
  5. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.533 million
  6. Nine/NBN News — 1.309 million *
  7. Nine/NBN News (6.30pm) — 1.305 million *
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.147 million
  9. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.103 million

*Nine News, Nine News 6.30pm in Perth were impacted by Nine’s Origin’s coverage start time being 30 minutes earlier. ACA was pre-empted nationally.

Top metro programs:

  1. State of Origin Game 3 (Nine) — 2.488 million
  2. State of Origin Post-Match (Nine) — 1.560 million
  3. State of Origin Pre-Match (Nine) — 1.364 million
  4. Seven News — 1.075 million
  5. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.003 million

Losers: No one, Origin was too dominant.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.075 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.003 million
  3. Nine News — 998,000 *
  4. Nine News (6.30pm) — 955,000 *
  5. 7pm ABC News —714,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC) — 534,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 513,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News — 469,000
  9. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 352,000
  10. SBS World News — 153,000

*Nine News, Nine News 6.30pm in Perth were impacted by Nine’s Origin’s coverage start time being 30 minutes earlier. ACA was pre-empted nationally.

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 495,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 386,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 247,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC,  157,000 + 66,000 on News 24) — 223,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 192,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 136,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8, TV HITS  (2.0%)
  2. LifeStyle  (1.7%)
  3. Nick Jr (1.6%)
  4. UKTV (1.4%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 59,000
  2. Peppa Pig (Nick Jr) — 55,000
  3. Peppa Pig (Nick Jr) — 52,000
  4. American Dad (Fox8) —52000
  5. Location Location (LifeStyle) — 49,000