NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has claimed they would consider bringing State of Origin kick-off earlier in the next broadcast deal from its current 8.05pm timeslot on a Wednesday.

Maroons skipper Daly Cherry-Evans floated the idea that he would love to see a radical switch for the midweek matches to be brought forward to 6pm so that more children could watch Origin on a school night.

Such a move would be shot down at the negotiating table by Nine or any other free-to-air broadcaster when the next TV deal is negotiated for 2028 onwards.

“I think a 6pm kick-off would be even better for Origin,” Cherry-Evans told NewsCorp. I would love to see the NRL change the kick-off time so the kids wouldn’t have to stay up so late.”

Abdo responded by saying Nine would have to agree to change the kick-off time for any year in the current broadcast cycle which runs another three seasons after this one.

Nine reap in millions in advertising revenue from the later kick-off time and would laugh any suggestion to bring it forward out of the room.

“It’s something that will be considered by the (ARL) Commission in the new broadcast cycle,” Abdo said.

“At this particular point in time, there’s no plans to change it, but that’s something that can be considered and we would have to work within the commercial arrangements that we have.”

The series opener last month brought in a huge viewership of 3.44 million people in Australia, the biggest for any event in 2024 with 934,000 in Sydney, 809,000 in Brisbane and 287,000 in Melbourne.

Ratings figures for game two, particularly in Victoria with the match being played at the MCG, are tipped to be even higher.

Nine scored a massive share of more than 48% of total viewership during Origin I.