NRL’s Vegas opener pips the Tillies in TV ratings
The Vegas opener to the NRL season was a ratings winner for Nine
The glitzy, Vegas-based return of the NRL season drew over 1.5m viewers to Nine on Sunday afternoon, just beating that evening’s Women’s Asian Cup opener for total viewers and average audience numbers.
The NRL season opened on Sunday with a double-header in Las Vegas. This marks the third year in a row the regular season has launched in the gambling capital, part of a larger push to draw international audiences to the sport.
Nine only had the broadcast rights to the 3.30pm Bulldogs v Dragons matchup, which drew 1.52m viewers, with average audiences of 647,000 throughout. The post-match coverage drew over 1m viewers, with an average of 579,000 — mostly due to the match going into golden point, and thereby running overtime.
The NRL 2026 Vegas Countdown show, airing on Nine from 1pm-3pm, managed to pull total audiences of 897,000, and average audiences of 232,000 — perhaps due to the misconception Nine was airing the 1.15pm Knights v Cowboys match, which was exclusive to Foxtel.
The AFC Women’s Asian Cup, which is hosted in Australia, also kicked off on Sunday, with the 8pm opener between the Philippines and the Matildas drawing 1.44m viewers to Ten, with average audiences of 635,000.
An average of 252,000 viewers hung around for the celebratory post-match coverage, or perhaps they were waiting for the new episode of Survivor, which was unceremoniously pushed back to the unfriendly time of 10.30pm on a Sunday evening.
Alas, both sporting competitions were roundly beaten in the ratings by two other competitions: Married At First Sight on Nine — which easily topped the day’s ratings, with 3.4m viewers and an average of 2.12m — and Australian Idol on Seven, which drew 1.78m and an average of 911,000.
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Averages tell more than big numbers. The 1.52m viewers watched, but their average game viewing of 579k was 43% of the broadcast.