State of Origin

A peak audience in excess of 2.5 million tuned in to see the Queensland XXXX Maroons win the 2008 Harvey Norman State of Origin series for the third year in a row, beating the NSW Wizard Blues 16-10.

An average 2.144 million viewers (Total People) watched Channel Nine's exclusive coverage across the 5 City Metro - the highest result for a State Of Origin game since the introduction of OzTam ratings.

The 2008 Origin series has been a record-breaker for Nine, with the audience of each game increasing throughout the series (Game I - 2.092 million, Game II - 2.096 million, Game III - 2.144 million). This State of Origin series now occupies the three highest rating programs for Total People for survey to date in 2008.

Wednesday, June 11 at 7.30pm on Channel Nine

Game two of the 2008 State of Origin series will be broadcast exclusively live on the Nine Network next week as New South Wales and Queensland continue to battle for rugby league supremacy.

The XXXX Queensland Maroons are desperate to win the second game to stay in the running, just as the Wizard Blues want to wrap up the series 2-0 ahead of game three. Nine’s Wide World of Sports will telecast game two live from 7.30pm Wednesday, June 11 at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium. The final game of the series will be played in Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Wednesday, July 2.

Ken Sutcliffe will host Nine’s State of Origin broadcast, with Ray Warren calling the play. Joining Warren in commentary will be State of Origin legends Peter Sterling and Paul Vautin, along with former Blues coach Phil Gould.

A peak audience in excess of 2.4 million watched the NSW Wizard Blues win game one of the Harvey Norman State of Origin Series last night, beating the Queensland XXXX Maroons 18-10.

An average 2.092 million viewers (Total People) watched Channel Nine’s exclusive coverage across the 5 City Metro – the highest result for a State Of Origin game since the introduction of OzTam ratings.

In Sydney, the game attracted a peak audience of 983,000 for Total People and was the night’s number one program with an average of 897,000 viewers – 57.4 per cent of the audience. In the advertiser-preferred 25-54 demographic the match peaked at 503,000, with an average of 440,000 viewers, also the night’s number one.

In Brisbane, Nine’s coverage drew a peak audience of 802,000 for Total People, with the game averaging 710,000 – a staggering 63.6 per cent of the audience. In the 25-54s, the game attracted a peak of 399,000 and averaged 342,000.