HD Ratings: Anarchy Almost Rules

Sons of Anarchy helped TV3 to clock up the biggest share of its target audience, 25-54 year-olds, on Wednesday.

The network’s line-up of World’s Deadliest Roads, Wild Colombia and Anarchy is proving competitive with TV One’s reality and drama mix and even dented the appeal of TV2’s evening comedies, The Middle and Hot in Cleveland.

The Middle has been one of TV2’s biggest HD hits but this week’s re-run averaged only 8.1% – 9.9% of the key demos against Roads’ 6.3% – 9.0%.

While it was still popular enough to beat Roads’ first half, the latter’s second half out-rated Cleveland.

New episodes of The Big Bang Theory (12.6% – 14.3%) and 2 Broke Girls (9.8% – 11.7%) were unassailable but Wild Colombia (3.4% – 7.3%) gave Winners and Losers (3.7% – 6.6%) a run for its money.

But it was at 9.30 that TV3 got into top gear, with Sons of Anarchy averaging 5.0% – 7.2% to largely win its slot.

Despite posting record series ratings in the US, the return of The Walking Dead at 10.30 could draw only 1.8% – 4.5% and, ironically, was least popular with TV2’s target audience, 18-39 year-olds.