HD Ratings: Wick Lights Up TVNZ 2

Replacing Australian Survivor with the movie John Wick on Sunday helped to re-ignite TVNZ 2’s weekend ratings.

The network originally scheduled the Keanu Reeves hit-man hit for post-10pm before bringing it forward to 8.30 in the Survivor slot, where the Australian series had been struggling against Three’s action movies.

In 2’s target demographic, John Wick drew twice as many 18-49 year-olds as Survivor the previous week and was up nearly three ratings points in the 25-54 demo.

It averaged 5.6% of 18-49s and household shoppers with kids, 6.5% of 25-54s and 4.9% of 18-39s.

Admittedly, Three’s competition was much weaker than the previous week’s xXx: The Return of Xander Cage: another re-run of Fantastic Four, which averaged only 1.7% –  2.1% of the core commercial demographics.

But John Wick’s popularity reinforces the risks of TVNZ 2 tampering with its Sunday Premiere Movie strategy: with the right content, it’s one of the week’s highest-rating slots and is too valuable to squander on an imported reality franchise.

TVNZ 2 had a strong night generally, with Shortland Street and My Kitchen Rules NZ dominating their slots (although TVNZ 1’s Hyundai Country Calendar still rounded up more 25-54s than Shorty).

Three’s Australian Ninja Warrior’s ratings were steady while 1’s The Cry were down in all the key demos.

TVNZ 2 easily won the night across the board.

The networks were competitive on Saturday with their movies but 1’s The X Factor UK dominated from 7.00-8.00 and on Friday the winners were Shortland Street, The Graham Norton Show and 7 Days (although X-Factor was competitive against Norton).