HD Ratings: Criminal Minds Robbed

The season 14 premiere of Criminal Minds failed to arrest TVNZ 1’s Monday night ratings decline.

It averaged 2.7% of the network’s 25-54 audience vs 5.1% for TVNZ 2’s Mom and 4.2% for Three’s The Rookie.

Once a top-rating staple, it’s not only age and familiarity that have dented its appeal but also the lack of a crowdpleasing lead-in.

Both Mom and The Rookie are preceded by ratings juggernauts: the former has My Kitchen Rules, which averaged 6.7% of 25-54s and overlapped the start of Criminal Minds; and the latter has Dancing With the Stars, which averaged 7.0%.

MKR and DWTS see-sawed in the 25-54 stakes but DWTS was always well ahead in the other core commercial demographics.

While The Rookie inherited a large audience, the opening half-hour still lost to the closing half-hour of MKR in the key demos.

But its audience built towards the end whereas Mom quickly shed viewers except in the 18-39 demo.

As a result, Three’s Special Victims Unit out-rated TVNZ 2’s Killing Eve in all the major demos except 18-39.

And even with Jack Tame as the new face of Q+A, the current affairs hour continues to struggle for viewers, averaging only 0.7% of 25-54s (vs 2.3% for Eve and 2.5% for SVU).

Earlier, 1 News topped Newshub Live in the 25-54 and 18-49 demos but not 18-39 while only seven-tenths of a rating point saw it lead among household shoppers with kids.

At 7.00, Three’s The Project beat TVNZ 1’s Seven Sharp in all the core demos except 25-54, where the latter scored a narrow win.

TVNZ 2 won the night with the biggest shares of the 25-54, 18-39 and HHS/k demos while Three was tops with 18-49s.