Roosters v Sea Eagles clash down on last year and well behind AFL Grand Final

THE AFL has bragging rights over the NRL with TV ratings for last night's Rugby League Grand Final well behind the AFL Grand Final of a week ago.

The Rugby League Grand Final averaged 2.179 million viewers across the five capital cities on Channel 9 last night.

The Sydney Roosters beat the Manly Sea Eagles 26-18 to clinch its first premiership in eleven years.

The AFL Grand Final, with Hawthorn beating Fremantle, averaged 2.717 million viewers on September 28 for Channel Seven.

Last night's NRL Grand Final was also down on 2012 when 2.42 million viewers across the five capital cities watched the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs v Melbourne Storm clash.

The audience decline can be blamed on a drop in Melbourne viewers. Only 411,000 Melburnians watched this year - down from a whopping 751,000 last year.

The strong NRL figures put a dent in The X Factor which averaged 1.246 million viewers last night - a drop of around 300,000 from last week.

One of the six remaining contestants on the Channel Seven talent show will be eliminated tonight.

Another show to get hit by the NRL Grand Final was the ABC's Kakadu. The premiere of the Aussie nature documentary series averaged a soft 699,000 viewers last night.

The ABC still had something to smile about with a massive 1.433 million viewers watching the Fleet Review Spectacular on Saturday night.

Plenty of people stayed on to watch the ABC's British crime drama New Tricks which scored a fantastic 1.176 million viewers.

Channel Nine's Australia's Got Talent, which usually screens Sunday night, will air tonight at 7pm.

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