HD Ratings: Cricket and Rugby Top Guns

Despite controversy about the outcome of the live auction, Three’s grand final of The Block NZ: Redemption out-gunned TVNZ 1’s live cricket coverage on Sunday night.

It averaged 4.2% of 25-54 year-olds and 3.0% of 18-49s, with only the opening quarter-hour losing to International Cricket: 20/20.

Following The Block with Top Gun also turned out to be inspired counter-programming, with the 26-year-old Tom Cruise hit averaging 2.9%/2.0% of the core demographics to largely dominate its slot, although the 18-49 support did wane in favour of the cricket.

The cricket match averaged 2.8%/2.2% overall compared to 1.7%/0.9% for TVNZ 2’s 7.30 movie The Bourne Identity.

The spy thriller’s lead-in, Young Sheldon, improved on previous weeks with 1.5%/1.3% as the TVNZ 1 competition was much weaker than the show it pre-empted, Hyundai Country Calendar.

Eden’s movie Nowhere Boy averaged 0.1%/0.0% vs 0.2% of each key demo for Prime’s The Equalizer and 0.5%/0.4% for lead-out Game of Thrones. Duke’s South Seas Spearo averaged 0.5% of each and Wild Kai Legends 0.2%/0.1%; Whakaata Māori Everything Must Go averaged 0.1%/0.0%.

TVNZ 1 and Three split the night, with each clocking up a 22.1 share of 25-54s while the former led the 18-49 race.

The first 90 minutes of TVNZ 1’s Saturday night cricket coverage dominated the core demos but thereafter Three’s live telecast of the International Women’s Rugby Cup led, with averages of 4.6%/2.7%.

Three also fared well with its hour-long premiere of Wild Heroes averaging 2.1%/1.4% to beat the opening of TVNZ 2’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

In the end, TVNZ 1 won the night’s biggest shares but it was keenly contested, with the network averaging 27.3%/27.7% vs Three’s 26.4%/22.4%.

Note: These overnight ratings exclude viewership of the networks’ +1 SD channels.