Only three  winners from last night — Queenland, Nine and Kevvie Rudd, or should that be two (Queensland and Nine). That’s after the Queensland daily double got up in Brisbane and Canberra, as The Courier-Mail reported on its fort page this morning.

Nine won the night with the State of Origin, as it would. But the real destabiliser for TV programmers and the ratings analysts and measurers were the events in Canberra — they made a complete and utter mess of late afternoon and evening ratings for the pre-6pm slots, the 6pm news, the  6.30pm timeslots, 7pm, 7.30pm, and onwards. Never have we had such a night last night for TV viewers — accurate audience data for these programs won’t be available for a day.

The ABC suspended its evening schedule on its main channel and News 24 and went with Canberra. Ten and Seven stuck with it for as long as possible (Nine switched its coverage to GEM around 7.47 amid a flood of phone calls from viewers wanting to see the State of Origin lead-up with lightweight pap). In fact the final rankings and ratings for each program won’t be finalised until later today or overnight and will be released tomorrow because each network will have go to through and change the start and end times for what actually went to air.

For example, on Seven and Nine, their coverage started well ahead of the normal 6pm appearances by Chris Bath (Seven) and Peter Overton (Nine) and the coverage last well after they usually ended their efforts for the night at 6.30pm. They handled their long hostings with aplomb. Mark Riley on Seven, Laurie Oakes on Nine (helped by Lachlan Harris) and Barrie Cassidy on the ABC stood out last night in the “expert” roles they played in the coverage. And on the ABC, Leigh Sales anchored the coverage from late  afternoon to late at night in a magnificent effort that confirmed her durability and talent.

The ABC’s News 24 had its highest ratings with a prime-time average of 5.9% in metro markets and in 5.6% regional markets. Sky News did very well  with a 5.4% share of pay TV viewing last night. Sky News had the top seven programs on pay TV last night — 207,000 was the biggest for the coverage that aired in the evening timeslot for the SportsNight program.

Thanks to the simulcasting of the ABC’s coverage on its main channel and News 24, the ABC ended up second on the night overall in metro and regional markets and nationally. Some of News 24’s timeslots (Grandstand at 7.30, 388,000, The Drum at 10pm, 314,000, The Business at 8.30pm, 295,000) had big audiences for the coverage, even though the actual programs didn’t air. What was clear from the early data is that viewers preferred Nine and the ABC to Seven for coverage from Canberra, and yet Mark Riley was pretty good and on top of the story on Seven.

Ten was squelched. It should have stuck with its political coverage at least and appeared a news contender, not a dabbler, it was such a dramatic night. The late news was expanded to an hour though. Still, Offspring had 647,000 metro viewers.

This morning the ABC (1 and 24), Nine and Seven went with live coverage from Canberra for the swearing in of Rudd. Ten went with a cooking show — no move by Adam Boland to try and get Ten into the morning news game. Weak.

The State of Origin on Nine averaged  2.445 million viewers for Queensland’s emphatic 26-6 win (including the audience on GEM in Perth and on Nine’s main channels elsewhere). Nine won because the win by Queensland gives the network a decider for a second year in the third game (last year’s audience is the record for Origin. Last night’s game was the second best on record for Game 2, on preliminary figures ).

Note: The top 10 national programs are not available because there’s no accurate combined data due to the the ratings confusion from last night’s Canberra coverage across the networks.

Tonight: Well, where will Rudd pop up — on 7.30? Once again politics will be the dominating event tonight for the ABC, as it was last night.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (39.4%)
  2. ABC (22.7%)
  3. Seven (22.1%)
  4. Ten (13.3%)
  5. SBS (2.5%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (33.2%)
  2. Seven (16.1%)
  3. ABC1 (14.3%)
  4. Ten  (10.0%)
  5. SBS ONE (2.1%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. ABC News 24 (5.9%)
  2. 7TWO (3.7%)
  3. GO (3.2%)
  4. Gem (3.1%)
  5. 7mate (2.3%)

Top metro programs (provisional):

  1. State of Origin Game (Nine) — 2.445 million *
  2. State of Origin pre-match (Nine) –1.777 **
  3. The Block (Nine) — 1.504 million ***
  4. Nine News — 1.339 million ****
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.295 million ****
  6. Seven News — 1.211 million ****
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.132 million ****
  8. State of Origin post-match (Nine) — 1.033 million *
  9. ABC1 News — 1.029 million ***
  10. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.008 million

* Includes viewers on GEM in Perth

** Includes viewers watching politics on Nine from 7.30 to 7.47 pm and on Gem in Perth

*** Didn’t air in some markets or mostly Canberra coverage

**** Didn’t actually air- – all politics

Losers:  No one except NSW, NSW fans, Julia Gillard and her supporters.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.339 million *
  2. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.295 million *
  3. Seven News — 1.211 million *
  4. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.132 million *
  5. ABC 1 News — 1.029 million*
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 993,000 *
  7. Ten  News — 668,000 *
  8. The Project (Ten) — 504,000
  9. The Drum (ABC1, late) — 314,000 *
  10. The Business (ABC1) — 295,000* 

*Didn’t air in some markets or mostly Canberra coverage

Morning TV:

  1. Today  (Nine) – 390,000
  2. Sunrise  (Seven) – 375,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 63,000 + 43,000 on News 24

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Sky News – (5.4%)
  2. Fox 8– (2.7%)
  3. TV1 (1.8%)
  4. LifeStyle – (1.6%)
  5. Fox Sports 1 (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. SportsNight (Sky News) – 207,000
  2. Paul Murray  (Sky News) – 188,000
  3. Sky National News (Sky News) – 178,000
  4. Richo (Sky News)  – 171,000
  5. Sky National News  (Sky News) – 151,000

 

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) Plus network reports.