HD Ratings: Aquarius Booms in Key Age Demos

TV1’s new flower power crime drama Aquarius rated well with baby boomers but otherwise was beaten by TV2’s Grey’s Anatomy and TV3’s NCIS: Los Angeles.

Aquarius won the 9.30 hour on Tuesday with 40-64 year-olds (6.5%) and averaged 2.2% – 4.8% of the core commercial demographics.

It also was the most watched hour among TV1’s target audience, 25-54 year-olds, opening with 5.9% of this demo off the back of the return of The Mentalist (2.9% – 5.3%) and closing with 4.1%.

Baby boomer critics concurred: our own Doug Coutts thought it “looks good and sounds good, but is a bit short on substance” while The Dominion Post’s Jane Clifton said it “promises to be an engaging intellectual and period wallowing exercise, but it needs to be a psychological exercise as well”.

The Mentalist, which already has been seen on-demand, was also competitive in the 25-54 stakes, being 1.1 points behind TV2’s Empire and narrowly edging out NCIS.

After weeks of sub-par ratings, the latter bounced back with 4.7% – 5.1%, which was enough to finish second in three of the four key demos after Empire (6.2% – 11.2%).

NCIS: LA also scored solidly, with 3.6% – 4.7%, and won the 18-39 vote while Grey’s Anatomy (3.8% – 7.0%) dominated in the 18-49 and house shoppers-with-kids demos.

The night’s biggest crowdpleaser was not My Kitchen Rules (10.0% – 17.2%), which has been TV2’s mega-hit of late, but lead-in Shortland Street (10.8% – 17.4%), which is enjoying a winter season resurgence.

At 7.30, against MKR, TV1’s critters combo (Dog Squad, Keeping Up With the Kaimanawas) fared better than TV3’s Road Cops and Gold Coast Cops.

But the Cops duo had a weaker lead-in off the back of Come Dine With Me NZ, which averaged 4.3% – 4.8% for its second episode compared to Seven Sharp’s 6.1% – 8.1%.

Overall, TV2 easily won the night in the key demos, with channel shares of 23.9% – 32.6% whereas TV3’s shares were sub-20%: