D’oh! Sheldon’s No Home(r) Run

Replacing re-runs of The Simpsons with a season five repeat of Young Sheldon on Thursday night cost TVNZ 2 5,000 viewers in the core commercial demographic.

The Big Bang Theory spin-off averaged 29,639 viewers aged 25-54 (1.44 rating/8.21 share) vs 34,755 (1.69 rating/8.81 share) for the Springfield ‘toon on Wednesday.

But the decline didn’t stop TVNZ 2 dominating the evening ratings, with Shortland Street and MasterChef Australia winning their slots.

The former averaged 101,918 viewers (4.97 rating/29.62 share) to beat TVNZ 1’s Seven Sharp (78,519, 3.83 rating/24.15 share) and Three’s The Project (45,590, 2.22 rating/14.70 share).

The latter averaged 77,393 viewers (3.77 rating/28.36 share) vs 67,524 for TVNZ 1’s RPA (3.29 rating/20.71 share) and 63,494 for Three’s 7 Days (3.09 rating/20.07 share).

But TVNZ 1 regained the ascendancy at 8.30, when Rich House Poor House averaged nearly 61,000 viewers (2.93 rating/20.46 share) vs 30,783 for TVNZ 2’s Australian Survivor (1.50 rating/10.60 share).

Three’s comedies finished in-between, with Double Parked averaging 54,289 (2.65 rating/18.71 share) and Homebound 3.0 42,587 (2.08 rating/15.58 share).

Prime’s live coverage of the Black Ferns vs Australia game helped to lift its 25-54 viewership into fourth place for the night.

The night’s most-watched programmes in the 25-54 demo were: 1 News, The Chase (5.30), Shortland Street, Newshub Live at 6pm, Seven Sharp, MasterChef Australia, The Chase (5.00), RPA, 7 Days and Rich House Poor House.

The channel shares were: TVNZ 1, 27.74; TVNZ 2, 19.66; Three, 18.56; Prime, 4.18; Rush, 2.39; Eden, 2.28; Duke, 2.05; Bravo, 1.69; HGTV, 0.83.