“Dead rubber” Origin night still huge for Nine

With a 42% network share, Nine would no doubt be happy for many more “dead rubber” nights of TV like last night.

State of Origin III drew 1.48m metro viewers as the Blues managed a belated win over the Maroons. Those numbers will climb with Total TV, including Nine’s BVOD crowd to become the third biggest TV audience of the year.

That left other shows to salvage what they could of the spoils.

The Chase topped entertainment at 548,000 / 325,000.

Elsewhere were Utopia (498,000), 7:30 (469,000), MasterChef Australia (455,000) and Animals Aboard with Dr. Harry (253,000).

Gruen drew 415,000 then The Front Bar (250,000), Ambulance Code Red (165,000) Gold Diggers (159,000), Riptide (155,000).

Nine network easily won Wednesday with 42.6% then Seven 21.5%, ABC 14.6%, 10 14.2% and SBS 7.1%.

Nine News was 771,000 / 714,000 then Hot Seat (352,000 / 243,000). Wimbledon was up to 115,000.

Seven News won at 962,000 / 897,000. Home & Away drew 470,000 for Seven.

ABC News pulled 588,000. The Drum (163,000), a Hard Quiz replay (160,000) and Queen of Oz (107,000) followed.

The Project managed 339,000 / 210,000. 10 News First was 238,000 / 175,000. So Help Me Todd was just 73,000.

On SBS it was SBS World News (137,000 / 110,000), Tour de France (92,000), History of the Sitcom (75,000) Rainbow Warrior: Murder in the Pacific (63,000) and Mastermind (40,000).

Pffirates on ABC Kids topped multichannels at 100,000.

Sunrise: 241,000
Today: 222,000
News Breakfast: 90,000 / 54,000

In Total TV numbers last Wednesday were:

Utopia: 1.06m
Gold Diggers: 554,000
Riptide: 345,000
Gruen: 930,000
MasterChef Australia:  717,000
Home & Away: 887,000
The Front Bar: 461,000

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 12 July 2023.