Nine broke ratings records last night as the State of Origin clash commanded the highest audience the game has seen since the introduction of OzTam measurements.
The first NRL showdown between New South Wales and Queensland for 2012 attracted an average of 2.51 million metro viewers nationally, according to preliminary figures from OzTam. The match peaked at 2.84 million viewers.
Nine also took out the second and third most watched program spots with the pre and post match coverage. The network dominated the night and had six of the eight highest rated shows for the evening, which also included The Block, Nine News and A Current Affair.
Seven was only able to dent Nine's night with Seven News and Today Tonight scoring top 10 spots in fourth and seventh.
MasterChef was the 10th most watched series with 975,000 viewers.
Other top 20 programs were ABC News, Home and Away (Seven), The Big Bang Theory (Nine), Offspring (Ten), Hot Seat (Nine), Ten News, Deal or No Deal (Nine), 7:30 (ABC), The Project (Ten), Australia's Got Talent (Seven) and Wild Life At The Zoo (ABC).
Across the main channels, Nine more than doubled its nearest rival with 35.8% of audience share. Seven was second with 17%, followed by Ten with 13.9%, the ABC with 8.5% and SBS with 3.9%.
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