HD Ratings: Growing Pains for Young Sheldon

Don’t be surprised if TVNZ 2’s Young Sheldon is pulled from its plum Sunday night slot after proving to be a big bomb rather than a big bang in the ratings.

This weekend’s episode averaged just 0.9% of 25-54 year-olds and 0.7% of 18-49s, the core commercial demographics the networks target.

That was on the back of 0.3% in each demo for the season premiere of lead-in The Amazing Race and was well down on last week’s launch, which averaged 1.4%/1.2%.

TVNZ 1’s Hyundai Country Calendar averaged 6.3%/5.4% and the first half of Three’s The Masked Singer NZ 3.4%/2.6%.

The latter’s revelation of All Blacks legend Eroni Clarke as the Magic Monster averaged 3.5%/2.5% for the 7.00 hour but drew roughly half the viewership of Sunday, the TVNZ 1 staple it overlapped (6.3%/4.7%).

Sunday’s popularity helped the return of George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces to win the 8.30 hour, with averages of 3.0%/2.4%.

But the premiere of the outstanding true-life Four Lives (1.1%/0.8%) couldn’t match the appeal of the escapist movies on TVNZ 2 and Three.

TVNZ 2’s Die Hard 4.0 (1.4%/1.0%) won its slot on the back of 2.3%/2.0% for lead-in ‘Crocodile’ Dundee II while Three’s The Amazing Spider-Man averaged 1.8%/1.2%.

Eden’s movie Greetings From Tim Buckley averaged 0.2%/0.0%, Prime’s The Equalizer 0.2% of each key demo, Duke’s Top Gear America 0.4%/0.3% and Whakaata Māori’s Cousins 0.0% of each.

TVNZ 1 won the night with massive shares of 25-54 (35.0%) and 18-49 (32.0%) while Three had the next biggest (18.1%/16.5).

On Saturday, Sky’s NRL and NPC rugby coverage took its toll on free-to-air schedules, but TVNZ 1 dominated the evening with 1 News, Tipping Point Lucky Stars and Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport winning their slots in the core demos.

TVNZ 1’s evening schedule also ruled on Friday but TVNZ 2’s Have You Been Paying Attention? was unbeatable; lead-out RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under won the 18-49 demo.

TVNZ 1 dominated Thursday with The Great Kiwi Bake Off and Hard Quiz while TVNZ 2’s Life on the Outside finished second at 8.30.

An hour earlier, Three’s Best Foods Comedy Gala averaged 2.5% of 25-54s and 1.9% of 18-49s — which was comparable to the previous week’s Urzila Carlson: Token African (2.5%/1.7%).

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