HD Ratings: Big Following Risks Americans Being Yanked

Monday’s premiere of The Following drew twice the following of The Americans but the network HD premiere of Life As We Know It dwarfed both HD dramas.

TV2’s movie averaged a whopping 10.1% – 16.7% of the major demographics, on the back of top ratings for Shortland Street (14.9% – 19.1%) and The Big Bang Theory (12.7% – 14.7%).

At 8.30, Criminal Minds averaged 5.4% – 9.5% for TV One and The Blue Rose, 4.1% – 7.1% for TV3 — which was down sharply from the premiere’s 6.7% – 8.6%.

And whereas TV One newcomer The Following retained most of its lead-in, to average 3.9% – 7.3%, The Americans fell to 2.0% – 3.7% for its second episode.

The superb ‘80s spy drama was most popular with 25-54 year-olds but is likely to wind up late-night if it can’t improve over the next week or two.

And the prospects of that are slight given the competition will be even tougher when TV2 sandwiches The Big Bang Theory between new episodes of My Kitchen Rules and Kitchen Nightmares.

Earlier in the night, TV3’s Crime Exposed (4.3% – 7.2%) was competitive with TV One’s Piha Rescue (4.0% – 7.7%) after Campbell Live out-rated Seven Sharp for the first time in all the key demos.

But at 8.00, Rapid Response (5.4% – 8.8%) left Territory Cops (3.2% – 5.7%) in its dust.

Meanwhile, TVNZ has just announced the first HD episode of MasterChef New Zealand was the highest-rating ever.

More than 1.1 million people tuned in, “breaking last season’s record for the first episode of a televised cooking competition in New Zealand,” says the press release.

“The show attracted a remarkable 36% share of the available 5+ TV audience at the time, a 20% audience increase on last year.”