HD Ratings: Brokenwood Beats Blockbusters

In its third week, TVNZ 1’s The Brokenwood Mysteries out-rated two movie blockbusters in the core commercial demographics on Sunday: TVNZ 2’s free-to-air premiere of Aquaman and Three’s repeat of The Fate of the Furious.

It was helped by a strong lead-in from Sunday, which averaged 6.6% of 25-54s and 4.3% of 18-49s for its interview with stroke victim Sir Bob Parker.

The night started strongly for TVNZ 1, with 1 News at 6pm averaging 11.7% of 25-54s and 8.1% of 18-49s — double the viewership of Three’s Newshub Live — and Hyundai Country Calendar 9.1% and 6.3% of these key demos.

Brokenwood averaged 3.1% of 25-54s vs 1.3% for Aquaman and 2.2% for Furious.

In the 18-49 demo, Brokenwood averaged 2.3%, Aquaman 1.1% and Furious 1.9%.

And after two nights in a row of losing to TVNZ 2’s MasterChef Australia, Three’s The Block NZ bounced back to beat its rival —  helped by Newshub Live delivering its much bigger audience than struggling bilingual game show 9 Lives, which averaged only 0.5% of the key demos.

TVNZ 1 won the night with huge demo shares while Three scored a commanding lead over TVNZ 2.

The trend was the same on Saturday, with TVNZ 1 dominating evening viewing.

Sky Sport’s international rugby coverage won the 8.00 hour and from 9.00 TVNZ 2’s X-Class: First Men and Three’s The Great War see-sawed.

On Friday, TVNZ 1’s The Repair Shop won the 7.30 hour in the 25-54 and 18-49 demos but Three’s Fast Five was in the driving seat thereafter, with 24-54/18-49 averages of 4.1%/3.3%.

TVNZ 1 still won the night’s biggest demo shares but the race with Three was closer.