State of Origin decider draws largest TV audience of 2017

Arvind Hickman
By Arvind Hickman | 13 July 2017
 
The one that got away: Is there a picture that better sums up this year's State of Origin series?

Nearly 2.5 million metropolitan viewers, including one in five Sydneysiders, watched the Queensland maroons wrap up yet another State of Origin series in Brisbane last night.

The national average audience of 3.65 million was the highest rating national audience this year, beating the 3.62 million that watched Roger Federer beat Rafael Nadal in an epic Australian Open final, although the five capital city audience of the tennis attracted 2.8 million.

The game peaked at 4.18 million and won key demos in every capital city market except Perth, where it claimed 16-39s and 18-49s.

The Maroons stunning 22-6 win, which could be the last for several ageing stars, including Johnathan Thurston, helped Nine secure its fourth night in a row where more than 2 million viewers tuned in to watch one of its shows.

There's little doubt Queensland saved their best for last, led by inspirational captain Cameron Smith, a near perfect Cameron Munster and the elusive Dane Gagai (pictured).

NSW will be livid they went from a position of total dominance at half-time in Game II to a convincing defeat at the final hooter last night.

While 1 million Sydneysiders watched the match compared to 867,000 in Brisbane (that's almost half its population), only 456,000 bothered watching the post-match trophy, the rest probably sick of the cane toads lifting the shield for the 11th time in 12 years.

The series will be deemed a success by Nine after the first and second games each pulled average metro ratings of 3.5 million viewers.

Rugby league dominated the night, followed by Nine and Seven news, then MasterChef, which attracted 716,000 metro and 973,000 national viewers.

Nine's main channel secured a massive 40.5% share, followed by Seven (13.5%) and Ten (10.8%).

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