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2 million watch Comm Games Opening Ceremony

Seven scores a massive 52% share as the Gold Coast turns on a massive beach party.

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More than 2 million viewers watched the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games last night -the biggest audience so far this year.

2.01m watched the event, as a soggy beach party took centre stage at Carrara Stadium, in a clash of cultural, sporting and musical celebration. At times it was kitsch, with surf lifesavers and a Kombi van but stars such as Katie Noonan and Delta Goodrem went for the emotion and Indigenous dancers added plenty of history.

Seven scored an almighty 52.7% share for the night -another 2018 record.

Brisbane scored the biggest audience at 654,000 viewers followed by Melbourne (526,000) and Sydney (458,000).

It was the biggest Opening Ceremony of any Commonwealth Games or Olympics in over a decade. The huge figures shattered fears there was no buzz around the games.

Most other networks were dead rubber for the night with Hard Quiz the event’s nearest competitor at 501,000.

Nine drew a 18.4% share then ABC 12.7%, TEN 11.0% and SBS on 5.1%.

Frustratingly for Seven the numbers are outside the ratings survey, but they are evidence that interest in the games will be high for the remaining 10 days.

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  2. I attended the event and it was spectacular! I found it fascinating seeing what was being broadcast on TV via the screens and also being able to see what it actually looked like “on the ground”, so to speak (i.e. the individual elements that combined to create those amazing images shot from the overhead cameras). It was an artistic triumph and my hat goes off to everyone involved. The rain threatened to absolutely ruin the show 5 minutes before the broadcast began (it was pelting down – anyone not under cover, which included 90% of the Category A $495 seats, got completely saturated), but only about a minute before the event went live to air, the rain stopped and stayed away for the rest of the night. It was brilliant to be there in person and I absolutely loved it!

  4. I found a lot of it pretty boring actually. Some of the special effects were good but I couldn’t quite understand what the storyline at the beginning had to do with the games. Another heavy rain downpour here as I type this, hope the rain goes away and stays away for a happy games.

    1. I watched the games last night & the heavy rain had some effects on the Opening ceremony night. It was quite unclear to see the crowd atmosphere inside Carrara Stadium.

  6. Where was the gender diversity in the Opening Ceremony performances? Practically all the vocalists were female. Extremely disappointing to see that our male talent wasn’t showcased. Imagine the outcry if the event only featured male artists with just 1 or 2 token females! What was Guy Sebastian busy?

    1. Maybe they approached some male artists, but they weren’t available. Who knows? And who really cares? They provided good performances.

      1. Who cares?

        Because as Markyboy said, if it was all male there would have been outrage. Believe it or not, equality and gender diversity goes both ways

        1. Well, there would have been outrage because of the history of gender bias against women. So there’s justification if there were to be outrage for an all-male line-up.

          This one case of an all-female line-up doesn’t stack up to the decades of male-dominated events. That’s why I say who cares, really. Maybe they’re just trying to even the scales now. But at the end of the day, the only people who can answer these questions about the line-up and gender are the organisers themselves, we’re just speculating.

          2. I stand corrected, as David points out, it wasn’t an all-female line-up.

            So there was gender diversity.

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