Can APB Rescue Blindspot?

TVNZ 1 is banking on its new Monday night crime drama APB to boost Blindspot’s viewership.

The former hit tonight relocates from 8.30 Thursday, where it’s bombed, to follow APB at 9.30.

The move won’t resurrect the show’s original popularity but it can scarcely rate worse in the later slot than it did on Thursdays.

The most recent instalment averaged 2.5% of TVNZ 1’s target audience, 25-54 year-olds, and 1.8% of 18-49 year-olds.

The 25-54 viewership was less than half that of lead-in George Clark’e s Amazing Spaces (5.3%).

Compare that to the network’s other 8.30 dramas. Last week’s 800 Words averaged 3.0% on Wednesday, which built on its lead-in of 1.9% for Women in Blue.

And Monday’s premiere of APB averaged 4.2% off the back off the time slot-winning Nigel Latta’s Mind Over Money (6.4%).

The latter has paid big dividends for TVNZ 1, beating both TVNZ 2’s My Kitchen Rules and Three’s The Block Australia.

It helped APB to win its first quarter-hour segment but under its own steam the hi-tech procedural lost 2.1 rating points opposite Three’s Married at First Sight Australia, which averaged 6.1% and improved on lead-in The Block (4.9%).

However, APB still drew more 25-54s than TVNZ 2’s comedy Life in Pieces (2.8%) and opened stronger than predecessor Our Girl ended (3.1%).

But the chances of its appeal rescuing Blindspot are slim given the damage that’s been done to the show by its shift from Sunday to Thursday and the fact that gimmicky crime dramas like Blindspot and The Blacklist (which also returns tonight at 10.30 on Three) burn out quicker in this market than in the US.