Bulls-eye for Hunted Australia

Hunted Australia on TVNZ 2 enjoyed a big lift in 25-54 viewership in its first Thursday night airing against weaker competition on Three.

Until last week, it had to contend with 7 Days dominating the 7.30 hour in this critical commercial demographic.

But with the Kiwi panel show giving way to the UK version of The Traitors, Hunted’s viewership leapt from 39,393 the previous week to 66,628.

It averaged a 3.25 rating/22.75 share vs a 1.66 rating/10.14 share (33,996 viewers) for Traitors UK — which was down 20,000 viewers on the previous week’s Best of 7 Days.

Hunted also out-rated TVNZ 1’s The Great Australian Bake-off (59,888 viewers, 2.92 rating/18.67 share).

But Bake-off stablemate Would I Lie to You? won the 9.30 contest, with 52,046 viewers (2.54 rating/19.65 share).

TVNZ 2’s Naked, Alone and Racing to Get Home averaged 30,712 viewers (1.77 rating/14.16 share) and Three’s Newshub Late, 10,885 (0.53 rating/4.89 share).

TVNZ 1 won the night’s biggest key demo share (28.22) while TVNZ 2 (17.65) finished well ahead of Three (14.03).

There was another setback for Three on Wednesday when, for the first time this season, David Lomas Investigates (68,938 viewers, 3.36 rating/23.84 share) lost to TVNZ 1’s Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad (79,278 viewers, 3.88 rating/27.58 share) while Hunted Australia finished third (58,191 viewers (2.84 rating/18.48 share).

But Three’s Love Or List It Australia topped TVNZ 1’s Location Location Location, although it still trailed TVNZ 2’s 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

This helped Three to score the night’s second highest peak demo share (21.31), after TVNZ 1 (30.79) and ahead of TVNZ 2 (19.05).

The trend was the same on Friday, when the most popular 25-54 shows of the night were 1 News, Seven Sharp, Shortland Street, Newshub Live at 6pm, The Repair Shop, The Chase (5.30), The Farmer Wants a Wife, The Project, Bloodshot and Traitors UK.