2.1 million Aussies watched Origin

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MORE than 2.1 million viewers sat glued to their television sets as Queensland notched a record fourth straight State of Origin win.

The audience for Wednesday night's Origin Game Two failed to match the record 2.3 million viewers for the first game, but relegated the return of The Chaser's War On Everything to 10th place in the nightly rankings, with an audience of 1.1 million.

The football audience peaked at 2.5 million on Wednesday night.

An average of 812,000 people watched the game in Sydney, about 800,000 tuned in in Brisbane, and another 321,000 viewers joined from Melbourne.

The Nine Network's pre-match and post-match coverage also rated well, attracting audiences of 1.3 million and 1.2 million respectively.

The Chaser's return from two weeks off air rated the same as the highly controversial episode that went up against the previous Origin match.

The ABC program was pulled for two weeks after their Make A Realistic Wish skit about dying children caused widespread public outrage.

This time they took aim at some safer targets, like Kyle Sandilands, Andre Rieu, the Church of Scientology and Utegate.

The Chaser was beaten by ABC music quiz show Spicks and Specks, which picked up 10,000 more viewers.

Masterchef Australia continued its ratings bonanza, attracting an audience of 1.8 million as the second most-watched program of the night.

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