Only one program last night  — the Battle of Homebush (sub species the Cheekbone Sam Burgess Bravus), also known as the NRL Grand Final. A brutal game at times, but one redeemed at the end  by the flood of tears from people of all ages, on and off the field at the South Sydney Rabbitohs’ first rugby league premiership in 43 years. Nine won the night, easily, as expected.  Now for the rest of the ratings season — the next big sports event is the Bathurst car race next Sunday for the final time on Seven.

The Grand Final did well in the homes of TV viewers. The game itself had 3.951 million national/ 2.597 million metro/ 1.354 million regional viewers, according to figures from the Nine Network. That was up there with the best, but not the highest — that honour still belongs to the 2005 grand final when Wests Tigers (go the mighty Tiges) won its first grand Final since 1969. That game was watched by 4.103 million national/ 2.563 million metro/ 1.540 million regional viewers, which remains the highest rating NRL game of all time (regional included, but not the metro). In Sydney, Nine had a huge 65% of the audience.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (43.1%)
  2. Seven (24.9%)
  3. Ten (15.1%)
  4. ABC (11.2%)
  5. SBS (5.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (38.1%)
  2. Seven (18.0%)
  3. Ten (8.5%)
  4. ABC (8.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.0%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. ONE (4.2%)
  2. 7TWO (4.0%)
  3. GO (3.1%)
  4. 7mate (2.9%)
  5. Eleven (2.4%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. NRL Grand Final (Nine) – 3.374 million
  2. Grand Final Presentation (Nine) — 3.635 million
  3. Grand Final Entertainment (Nine) — 2.091 million
  4. Nine News — 1.935 million
  5. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.518 million
  6. The X Factor Performance (Seven) — 1.320 million
  7. Seven News — 1.300 million
  8. Big Brother (Nine) — 1.373 million
  9. Mrs Brown’s Boys repeat (Seven) — 954,000
  10. ABC News — 937,000

Top metro programs:

  1. NRL Grand Final (Nine) — 2.449 million
  2. Grand Final Presentation (Nine) — 2.369 million
  3. Grand Final Entertainment (Nine) — 1.368 million
  4. Nine News — 1.332 million
  5. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.014 million

Losers: Canterbury supporters.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.332 million
  2. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.014 million
  3. Seven News — 903,000
  4. ABC News — 644,000
  5. Ten Eyewitness News — 318,000
  6. SBS World News — 157,000

Morning TV:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 323,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) – 263,000
  3. Insiders (ABC 175,000 + 78,000 on News 24) — 253,000
  4. Landline (ABC) — 220,000
  5. Financial Review Sunday (Nine) — 181,000
  6. Offsiders (Nine) — 148.000

*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.) and network reports.