THE launch of the 2013 NRL season has attracted strong audiences in local television ratings, with the first game of the season drawing almost 40,000.

The Rabbitohs vs Roosters contest on Thursday proved more popular than the Broncos vs Sea Eagles, with the Friday game attracting around 26,000.

While the previous week’s numbers favoured “My Kitchen Rules” and Prime, last week saw “The Block” regain popularity.

It seems that “Downton Abbey”, a top 10 favourite nationally, doesn’t have the same resonance with Canberra audiences, coming in at No. 34 with around 24,630 viewers.

Ten’s Shaun Micallef vehicle, “Mr & Mrs Murder”, is doing little to lift the network’s performance. Nationally, the program lost ground last week, while in Canberra it was even out-rated by the ABC kid’s program Fireman Sam (12,800 viewers vs 12,500).

Shaun did better in his current affairs parody show on the ABC, “Mad as Hell”, attracting an audience of more than 26,500.

Audience share
# Program Channel Audience
1 THE BLOCK: ALL STARS – TUE WIN 50,751
2 THE BLOCK: ALL STARS – MON WIN 46,875
3 MY KITCHEN RULES – THU Prime7 43,889
4 THE BLOCK: ALL STARS – SUN WIN 42,116
5 LIVE THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL WIN 39,403
6 THE BLOCK: ALL STARS – WED WIN 39,357
7 WIN NEWS WIN 38,004

8 MY KITCHEN RULES – MON Prime7 34,869
9 NATIONAL NEWS WIN 34,846
10 THE BIG BANG THEORY – RPT WIN 34,700
11 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Prime7 33,836
12 THE BLOCK: ALL STARS – THU WIN 33,591
13 THE BIG BANG THEORY WIN 33,013
14 SEVEN NEWS – SUN Prime7 32,590
15 KEVIN MCCLOUD’S MAN MADE HOME ABC 31,480
16 NATIONAL NEWS SUNDAY WIN 30,748
17 MY KITCHEN RULES – TUE Prime7 30,568
18 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Prime7 30,394
19 NCIS: LOS ANGELES SC TEN 29,992
20 60 MINUTES WIN 29,797

Source: Regional TAM, All people, Overnight data