Viewing figures paint Magic Weekend picture

LEEDS’ game against Wakefield was the most watched game of the Magic Weekend according to figures released last week.
The match, which brought the curtain down on Day 1 at Murrayfield, was watched by 136,000 people, who were treated to a grandstand finish as the Rhinos snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the dying minutes.
The figure compares less than favourably with the average for a regular-round Super League match, many of which score a rating in excess of 200,000.
The findings will make interesting reading ahead of June's planned RFL meeting, where the future of the event will be discussed.
The Leeds v Wakefield total was dwarfed by the 1,780,000 who tuned in to BBC 2’s coverage of the Snooker World Championships semi-final, and bettered by the 203,000 that watched the Rugby Union European Challenge Cup Final between Wasps and Cardiff Blues and the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup game between Pakistan and Bangladesh, which drew 188,000.
The game did, however, narrowly out-perform Sky’s flagship football highlights programme ‘Football First’, which was watched by 133,000.
The game also comfortably outshone Day 3 of Golf’s US tour which attracted 57,000.
The least watched game from the weekend was the opening tie of the round between Crusaders and Bradford. Just 70,000 people tuned in, 49% less than watched Leeds v Wakefield.
That game faced stiff competition from Sky’s coverage of the Premier League match between Birmingham City and Burnley (547,000), as well as the ever-popular ‘Soccer Saturday’ (793,000) which reports on all of the day’s matches.