HD Ratings: IOU Pays Off for Three

Three’s new Thursday night show Celebrity IOU turned out to be a big plus after Holey Moley’s sub-par ratings.

Despite being a late addition to the schedule, the Discovery series appealed to far more 25-54 year-olds, Three’s target audience, than its time-slot predecessor.

It averaged 3.6% of this demo to challenge the supremacy of TVNZ 1’s Grand Designs UK (3.5%) and TVNZ 2’s Police Ten 7 (3.7%).

One quarter-hour segment won the demo, and viewership was solid for the hour, slipping from 4.0% to just 3.2%.

The second half-hour seesawed with Grand Designs but both were out-rated by TVNZ 2’s Motorway Patrol (3.7%).

Both police reality shows won the 18-49 demo while Grand Designs just pipped IOU (2.6% vs 2.5%).

Nonetheless, IOU’s early success may encourage Three’s new owner Discovery to open up more of its catalogue for network primetime.

TVNZ 2 dominated the rest of the night with Renters, A Current Affair and Hoarders in the 18-49 and 25-54 demos while Three’s 7 Days and New Zealand Today out-rated TVNZ 1’s Amazing Hotels.

Three’s season two premiere of 2nd Chance Charlie, in its new expanded half-hour format, averaged 1.8% of 25-54s and 0.8% of 18-49s, to finish third at 9.30.

TVNZ 1 won the night with the biggest 25-54 and 18-49 shares because of the popularity of its early-evening line-up.

It also easily won these demos on Friday, with The Repair Shop continuing to be unassailable at 7.30 while lead-out Interior Design Masters With Alan Carr improved on the previous week to compete with Three’s movie The 5th Wave, leaving TVNZ 2’s Amazing Race Australia and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown in third place.

But on Saturday, all the networks took a hit from Sky’s Super Rugby coverage, with TVNZ 2’s RuPaul’s Drag Face Down Under sharply losing viewers week-on-week (0.7% of 25-54s, 0.6% of 18-49s).

TVNZ 1 narrowly won the night in the 25-54 demo and led with 18-49s.