You just can’t beat such a grand grand final

Unlike the one-sided win by Melbourne in the AFL grand final eight nights before, Sunday night’s 14-12 win by Penrith over Souths was a classic rugby league grand final for the ages. And it pitted western Sydney (forgotten by the Coalition governments in Sydney and Canberra) against another forgotten area, South Sydney. Unlike the well-connected Easts, Manly and Melbourne Storm, the grand final saw one of the competition’s newer clubs in Penrith pitted against one of the oldest with 21 premierships.

The game averaged a very high 3.23 million nationally, the best for four years. The metro audience topped 2.2 million and the regional audience topped the million mark for the first time in a while at 1.03 million viewers. With two Sydney clubs in the grand final, the audience in the city was a very high 1.12 million.

The AFL grand final, of course, topped the NRL with 3.91 million, but after a season of moderate to indifferent TV audience figures, the grand final ended with a bang. It was higher than 2020’s 2.96 million in late October (it was late because of COVID. That’s when Melbourne beat Penrith in what turned out to be a cliffhanger, and it was certainly considerably better than the 2.61 million who watched Easts beat Canberra in 2019 which was pre-pandemic.

The game was the highest since 3.03 million watched the 2018 grand final between Easts and Melbourne. The 2005 grand final between Wests (go Tigers, you winners) and North Queensland was the highest rating grand final with 4.1 million (that’s in the modern ratings era). Benji Marshall played in that game and starre;, he also played for Souths in the 2021 grand final. The 2005 AFL grand final when the Swans beat West Coast is the highest rating of all time with 4.45 million viewers. Both were pre-social media.

Breakfast: Insiders, 650,000; Weekend Sunrise, 400,000; Landline, 383,000; Weekend Today, 302,000.

Regional top five: NRL grand final, 1.031 million; NRL grand final presentation, 708,000; NRL grand final presentation, 481,000; Seven News, 471,000; Nine News, 378,000.

Network channel share:

1. Nine (47.1%)
2. Seven (19.8%)
3. Ten (13.8%)
4. ABC (11.5%)
5. SBS (7.7%)

Network main channels:

1. Nine (40.4%)
2. Seven (14.9%)
3. Ten (9.2%)
4. ABC (8.2%)
5. SBS ONE (4.4%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. GO (3.0%)
2. 10 Bold (2.1%)
3. 7TWO, 10 Peach (2.0%)
4. 7mate (1.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. NRL grand final (Nine) —3.233 million
2. NRL grand final — presentations (Nine) — 1.501 million
3. NRL grand final entertainment (Nine) — 1.501 million
4. Seven News  — 1.471 million
5. Nine News — 1.302 million
6. NRL grand final post match (Nine) — 1.285 million
7. 7pm ABC News — 868,000
8. Homicide With Ron Iddles (Seven) — 763,000
9. Insiders (ABC TV, ABC News) — 670,000
10. Restoration Australia (ABC) — 594,000

Top metro programs: 

1. NRL grand final (Nine) —2.202 million
2. NRL grand final — presentations (Nine) — 1.794 million
3. NRL grand final entertainment (Nine) — 1.020 million
4. Seven News — 1.0 million

Losers: no one. The NRL grand final skewed viewing.

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Seven News — 1.0 million
2. Nine News — 924,000
3. 7pm ABC News — 563,000
4. Sunday Project 7pm (Ten) — 422,000
5. Nine Late News — 375,000
6. The Sunday Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 306,000
7. Ten News First (Ten) — 275,000
8. SBS World News — 171,000

Morning (national) TV:

1. Insiders (ABC, ABC News) — 670,000
2. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 400,000
3. Landline (ABC) — 383,000
4. Weekend Today (Nine) — 302,000
5. Offsiders (ABC) — 235,000
6. Sports Sunday (Nine) — 219,000

Top five pay TV programs: 

1. Grand final on Fox (Fox League) — 88,000
2. Outsiders (Sky News) — 75,000
3. Get ’Em on Side (Fox League) — 72,000
4. Rugby league: Qld Cup (Fox League) — 71,000
5. Cricket: Test, Aust v India day four (Fox Cricket) — 63,000