HD Ratings: DWTS Legs It With Lego

Dancing With the Stars NZ won its first close encounter with Lego Masters NZ on Monday night.

The tightly-contested tango saw DWTS win the 25-54 year-old vote by just two-tenths of a ratings point and the 18-49 race by five-tenths of a point — but was up sharply on Sunday’s broadcast.

It averaged 5.6% of 25-54s and 4.6% of 18-49s vs 5.4%/4.1% for the premiere of Lego (which earned a mixed review from Stuff).

The upshot of this was a big slump for last week’s 7.30 hour winners in the core commercial demographics, Fair Go and Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad.

The former averaged 3.4%/2.1% and the latter 2.2%/1.3%; the previous week, respective averages were 5.1%/3.5% for FG and 4.1%/3.1% for BD.

While Lego narrowly lost to DWTS, it held its viewership over the hour and helped the debut of lead-out Down for Love win the 8.30 slot in the key demos.

It averaged 3.7% of 25-54s and 2.8% of 18-49s vs 2.0%/1.2% for TVNZ 1’s Gordon, Gino & Fred’s Road Trip, and 3.2%/2.5% for Three’s 9-1-1.

Sister show 9-1-1 Lone Star dominated at 9.30, with 1.6%/1.4% opposite TVNZ 1’s 20/20 (1.1%/0.5%).

But where it overlapped with TVNZ 2’s Aroha Nui Say I Do, the series about Maori celebrants was competitive.

Earlier, TVNZ 1’s Seven Sharp out-rated Shortland Street and The Project in both major demos.

The result was one of the most competitive nights in months, with Three edging out TVNZ 2 for the biggest share of 25-54s and 18-49s while TVNZ 1 finished third in both contests.

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