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State of Origin down at 1.6m, ABC leads election coverage.

Ratings: State of Origin drops on 2019, but Nine still wins the night. ABC dominates live election coverage.

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1.6m viewers watched Qld Maroons down the NSW Blues in the first State of Origin match for 2020.

727,000 viewers were watching in Sydney with 513,000 in Brisbane. The number is well down on 2019’s first game at 2.18m in this most unusual year, and is the lowest Game 1 since 2001.

It was still well in front of Hard Quiz (596,000), The Bachelorette (470,000), My Houseful of Animals (226,000) and Walking Britain’s Roman Roads (177,000).

Later Gruen drew 601,000 then Reputation Rehab (305,000).

Of the US Presidential Election live coverage ABC was highest yesterday at 384,000 (this appears to be The Drum timeslot). Seven’s best figure was 176,000 then Nine (151,000), 10 (46,000) and SBS (38,000).

ABC News channel drew a 7.8% primetime share, helping ABC to second network for Wednesday.

Nine network easily won Wednesday with 37.6% then ABC 23.6%, Seven 18.5%, 10 13.5% and SBS 6.9%.

Nine News was 772,000 / 763,000 for Nine.

ABC News drew 641,000 for ABC. A Planet America special drew a higher number on ABC News at 303,000 than it did on ABC’s primary channel (212,000).

Seven News won its slot at 1.05m / 1.05m for Seven. Home & Away was 584,000 and movie: Honour was 149,000.

The Project pulled 466,000 / 324,000 for 10. 10 News First (318,000 / 250,000), The Masked Singer USA (139,000) and Bull (69,000) followed.

On SBS it was SBS World News (153,000), The Royals And The Tabloids (128,000), Mastermind (70,000) and The Good Fight (69,000).

Bluey still topped multichannels at 414,000.

Sunrise: 264,o00
News Breakfast:  122,000 / 120,000
Today: 212,000

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 4 November 2020

13 Responses

  1. On an alternative note to the Cross Country Wrestling, that was a strange ‘Citizen Kane’ themed ep of ‘The Good Fight’-apparently also the premature season finale due to Corona virus restrictions-also odd, the classification of ‘Nudity’ for a brief scene at the end of a frozen disembodied CGI penis! Bud/Rosebud-look it up folks.

  3. The commercial distraction of ‘Origin’ has been a moot point as far as NRL scheduling is concerned, teams are disrupted by what is a ‘Nine’ money earner mid season, there’s also the prospect of player injuries too.
    I get the feeling that this COVID series was developed more like an end of season test series, having Bennett and Mal with Queensland also adds a bit more interest than it might otherwise have had this year.

  4. SOO just doesn’t feel the same being in November so not surprised by the lower ratings.

    Only rescheduled because of COVID anyway so it should go back to normal next year.

  5. Origin is normally on in May/June, cold weather and dark at 5pm. I’d say many people went to pubs and clubs to watch to enjoy extended daylight and gather with friends who they may not have seen for a while, hence lower TV numbers.

  6. State of Origin only rated for Nine because we had no choice but to watch it on nine! Social media is littered with fans complaining about Nine’s apalling commentary. Disrespecting the welcome to country, lack of info pre game, poor commen during game, advertisements
    after every score and were still on when game had restarted, and relentless self promotion ruined a great game for many viewers. Yes it needs to be on free to air but treated as a serious sporting event, not a joke! Let Foxtel and other services show game live also.
    Nine must make major changes to their coverage and show game without ads during play! Get rid of Karl and Gus who were embarrassing!!!

    2. Yesterday arvo, my dad and i watched the origin on 9now via fetch. 9 don’t treat coverage with respect. They cut off the welcome to country telecast to head to Karl talking. I watched the game through player/coach cams and noticed taht there’s commentary coming from Gus and Ray. Why have commentary through special cams is way beyond me.

  7. Nine’s State of Origin impacted (may be a bit) by US election coverage and – may be slightly – much higher than per usual numbers for not just ABC News channel, but to a less extent perhaps by election boosts to Sky News, CNN, Fox news etc.?
    Can’t see why else Origin would be lower – ABC skewing higher as per election as noted, but Seven and Ten didn’t offer much in the way of strong counter-offerings vs the rugby?

  9. If the Origin numbers don’t improve next week, I’d think Nine will veto any plans for a November 2021 edition of Origin (moving back to mid season instead). That and they lose an hour of prime time viewers in Qld.

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