First Dates NZ Replaces All Rise

Struggling courtroom drama All Rise has been sentenced to late-night so repeats of First Dates NZ can rule instead at 9.35 Tuesdays.

The change is effective from March 10, when All Rise will shift to 11.35 and re-runs of Station 19 to 12.45am Wednesday, replacing The Resident (which is being dropped from the schedule).

I haven’t seen last night’s ratings but slick courtroom dramas like All Rise haven’t worked in primetime since the heyday of LA Law, Ally McBeal and Boston Legal.

Last week’s episode finished third after TVNZ 1’s Drag SOS and Three’s top-rating NCIS.

All Rise averaged 1.7% of 25-54s and 0.9% of 18-49s compared to NCIS’s 4.2% and 3.2%.

Coincidentally, TVNZ 1 is adding an episode of Driving Test to its March 10 schedule. It will air at 9.50, after We Are One: The Mosque Attacks One Year On.

Meanwhile, Sky has pulled Almost Family from its March slate of Neon premieres.

The Fox TV adaptation of an Australian series was cancelled yesterday in the US, where Variety noted it starred Timothy Hutton, “against whom an allegation of rape has recently come to light”:

Across its 13 episodes, the series averaged a 0.44 rating among adults 18-49 and 1.5 million Live+Same Day viewers. That places it at the very bottom of Fox’s scripted ratings charts. Its first nine episodes, which aired on Wednesdays, averaged a 0.7 rating and 2.5 million viewers after seven of delayed viewing.

A Sky spokesperson says Almost Family is still under licence “but plans to air it have been postponed indefinitely”.