The Winners: Rugby League’s State of Origin II dominated, but the other interesting point from the night was that the game had no national impact on MasterChef which averaged more than 1.6 million people as it went to air during the pre-game and the first 15 minutes of the actual match. The program’s figures in Sydney and Brisbane were hit, but were much higher in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

The last Glee for the current series on Ten at 8.30pm, 987,000 — not bad given the Origin match on Nine.

Angry Boys on the ABC at 9pm, 569,000, well down from the 805,000 when Origin I was on last month.

  1. State of Origin II (Nine) (8.15pm) — 2.159 million
  2. MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.607 million
  3. State of Origin II (post match) — (Nine) (10pm) — 1.491 million
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.466 million
  5. State of Origin II (pre match) (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.389 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.350 million
  7. Nine News (6pm) — 1.190 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.089 million
  9. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.061 million

The Losers: None really because of the dominance of Origin II. Not a real night.

News & CA: Seven News lost Sydney, won the rest. TT lost Melbourne, won the rest. A “normal” night.

In the morning, Sunrise went back to 400,000 and Today eased. Back to “normal” for the Seven program?

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.466 million
  2. State of Origin II (pre match) (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.389 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.350 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.190 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.089 million
  6. ABC News (7pm) — 924,000
  7. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 859,000
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 665,000
  9. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 510,000
  10. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 428,000
  11. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 224,000
  12. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 222,000
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 185,000
  14. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11pm) — 178,000
  15. SBS News (9.30pm) — 145,000
  16. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 119,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 400,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 356,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 35.2%, from Seven (3) on 24.9%, Ten (3) was on 22.9%, the ABC (4) ended with 13.3% and SBS (2) was on 3.9%. Seven leads the week on 31.1%, from Nine on 26.2% and Ten is third with 24.7%. For all the impressive figures for Origin last night, Nine’s share was less than Seven’s Tuesday night figure of 36.6%, which about sums up Nine’s 2011 so far.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with 30.5% from Seven on 17.7%, Ten on 17.4%, ABC 1 was on 9.7% and SBS ONE was on 3.5%. Seven leads the week with 24.4% from Nine on 20.5% and Ten on 19.1%. Nine’s 30.5% share last night just missed Seven’s Tuesday night share of 30.7% for the main channels.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with 4.8% from Eleven on 3.7%, GO on 2.7%, 7mate on 2.4%, ABC 2 was on 2.2%, Gem was on 2.0%, ONE, 1.8%, ABC 3 was on 0.9% and News 24 and SBS TWO ended with 0.4% each. That’s a total share of FTA viewing last night of 21.3%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.8% from Eleven on 3.3% and GO on 3.2%.
  • Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 29.7%, from Seven (3) on 21.0%, Ten (3) was on 19.3%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 13.0%, the ABC (4) ended with 11.2% and SBS (2) ended with 3.3%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of viewing last night of 87%. That was made up of 18% for the 10 digitals and 69% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 44.5%, from Prime/7Qld (3) on 24.3%, with SC Ten (3) on 16.6%, the ABC (4) was on 11.3%) and SBS (2) ended with 3.2%. WIN/NBN won the main channels by a regional mile or three because of Origin. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.2% from GO and Eleven on 3.0% each. The 10 digital channels had a 19.9% share of prime time FTA viewing last night. Prime/7Qld now leads the week with 31.1% from WIN/NBN on 30.2%,. The NRL tomorrow night should see WIN/NBN nudge ahead by Saturday morning.

Major Markets: Market performance went with the football affiliation. Nine won everything in Sydney and Brisbane, with Seven second and Ten third. In Melbourne, Ten won from Seven and Ten overall and the main channels. In Adelaide and Perth, Seven won both measures, with Ten second and Nine well back. 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Eleven won Brisbane. Seven and Nine are tied for the lead in Sydney and Nine now leads Seven and Ten in Brisbane. Sydney for the week is too close to call, Nine should win Brisbane though with the NRL tomorrow night. In Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, Seven leads from Ten and Nine and the week will see the networks finish in that order.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nine’s telecast of the second State of Origin was pretty good, great camera work and above average commentary, especially from Phil Gould and Peter Sterling (as usual). On field, the Queensland side look old and fading, even though some of the NSW players were approaching football’s middle age of 28 – 30 or more. The first two games of this series have been fabulous and viewers have responded. The AFL has nothing to match and will continue to suffer for it. Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau, the two NRL players who defected to AFL, could have been playing last night for Queensland and been a part of this.

Origin II won the night for Nine with big wins in Sydney and Brisbane, but surprisingly the audience was lower in the three markets were it went live and nationally, compared to the first game. The national audience of 2.159 million was down from the record 2.227 million for Origin I. Sydney’s audience of 1.017 million was lower than 1.054 for Origin I; the audience in Brisbane was down noticeably at 775,000 from a record 820,000 and in Melbourne, the audience slipped 5,000 to 291,000, which was the best performance on the night.

In Brisbane, Nine had a 50 share, down from 54 for game 1. Considering the hype and the fact that Queensland had the chance to win a 6th series last night, the support in Brisbane was light on. But the audience was the second highest, based on preliminary figures, since the current metering system was introduced.

In regional areas, Origin II lifted its audience by 2000 to 1.205 million, which was a good outcome. With the metro audience of 2.159 million, that boosted the national audience to 3.36 million.

Game three will be the big test in three weeks time. If the audience isn’t a record, then we know Origin has peaked.

MasterChef was watched by 447,000 in regional areas (about normal) and it’s a national audience last night with the 1.6 million metro viewers was a very impressive 2.05 million people.

TONIGHT: Seven has its usual collection of female-friendly programming, which will do well. Ten has MasterChef and a fresh and repeat of Law and Order SUV. Nine has Polar Bears again at 8.30pm followed by the dinosaurs of the NRL and AFL Footy Shows. The ABC has very little at all. SBS has a string of foodie programs from 7.30pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports