HD Ratings: Batman Prequel Beats Sequel

Sunday’s launch of Gotham rated nearly twice as well as the network movie premiere of The Dark Knight Rises the previous week.

The cornerstone of TV2’s new-look schedule averaged 8.1% – 10.5% of the major demographics to win its slot across the board but lost to TV One’s Call the Midwife (2.3% – 5.8%) in the viewers aged 5+ contest.

Gotham held or improved viewership over the hour in each of the key demos except 18-39 year-olds, peaking with 10.6% before ending with 8.9%.

However, lead-out Agents of SHIELD,  in its season two premiere, suffered a steeper decline, opening with 8.9% of 18-39 year-olds and closing with 3.7%.

Overall, it averaged 5.3% – 8.6% but even among its biggest following, household shoppers with kids, it plummeted from 11.1% of this demo in its first quarter hour to 6.2% in its last.

It see-sawed with the second half of TV3’s network movie premiere of Prometheus, which averaged 5.1% – 6.4% of the key demos over two-and-a-half hours.

Adding to the competitive mix was Prime’s launch of Kiwi whodunit The Brokenwood Mysteries, which averaged 1.3% – 3.2% of the key demos and 4.8% of viewers 5+ — the channel’s highest rating for the slot this year.

Earlier, TV2’s network movie premiere of Brave averaged 6.5% – 8.1% of the key demos and won the 7.30 hour opposite TV One’s My Kitchen Rules NZ (4.0% – 6.7%) and TV3’s The X Factor Australia (5.1%  – 6.9%).

Despite its later slot, One’s A Place to Call Home (2.2% – 6.1%) out-rated lead-in Call the Midwife among HHS/k and was competitive with it in the other demos.

Week on week, TV2 was up sharply, winning the night in all four key demos, TV3 improved and TV One slumped.

Sunday’s peak-hour HD channel ratings and shares were:

• A18-49: TV One, 5.0 rating/18.0 share; TV2, 7.3 rating/26.0 share; TV3, 6.1 rating/21.9 share
• A18-39: TV One, 3.9 rating/14.1 share; TV2, 7.8 rating/28.3 share; TV3, 6.8 rating/24.9 share
• A25-54: TV One, 6.7 rating/21.7 share; TV2, 7.0 rating/22.5 share; TV3, 6.0 rating/19.3 share
• HHS/k: TV One, 7.4 rating/22.0 share; TV2, 9.6 rating/28.7 share; TV3, 7.0 rating/20.9 share.

On Saturday, TV One’s Happy Hour couldn’t rate above 1.7% opposite TV3’s Blue Bloods 1.8% – 3.0% but it was TV2’s HD movies and Sky’s NRL coverage that dominated, although Four’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid (3.5% – 6.6%) won among HHS/k.

On Friday, The Voice staged a comeback with its season premiere (7.0% -10.5%) largely beating The Block NZ (6.9% – 8.4%) while TV3’s HD stand-up special Aotearoha: The Billy T Award (2.7% – 3.5%) struck out against TV2’s movie Jackie Chan’s First Strike (4.2% – 6.9%).

TV One’s 9.30 option, the return of the superb Last Tango in Halifax, averaged only 0.9% – 2.6%.