HD Ratings: Killers Slays Rivals

The network movie premiere of Killers on Sunday triggered a ratings comeback for TV2 after its light-ent line-up was crushed by TV One’s Sunday and NZ’s Got Talent.

The movie averaged 7.6% – 11.0% of the major demographics — adults 18-39, 18-49, 25-54 and household shoppers — compared to 2.3% – 3.7% for TV2’s SD re-run of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

The latter followed TV3’s HD premiere of ratings dog Marmaduke, which averaged only 3.1% – 3.6%.

Killers’ popularity helped its lead-out, the two-hour premiere of The River, to average 1.8% – 4.3%, compared to 0.9% – 1.3% for Touch and 0.2% – 0.4% for Offspring.

Earlier in the night, TV One’s Talent was down on previous weeks but still blitzed the competition with 6.6% – 12.5%.

Lead-out A Place to Call Home had another strong week, with 4.8% – 8.7%, although viewership tailed off sharply over the hour – as did the ratings for its new stablemate, Last Tango in Halifax, which averaged 1.9% – 4.2%.

Saturday’s FTA ratings were skewed by Bledisloe Cup coverage, which averaged 6.8% – 11.0% in Sky Sport 1 (live, HD) and 4.6% – 6.2% on Prime (delayed, SD).

In light of this, TV3 will have been pleased with Survivor: Blood vs Water’s 90-minute premiere averaging 3.4% – 5.2%.

The second episode of Testing the Menu fared marginally better than the first — 3.0% – 3.9% — and was competitive with TV2’s Duck Dynasty (2.4% – 3.4%) and TV One’s premiere of NZ Story (3.0% – 4.3%).

Lead-out This Town averaged 2.7% – 4.4% and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries 1.5% – 4.4%.

TV3’s Blue Bloods managed only 1.5% – 2.8% and TV2’s movie, The Time Machine, 3.6% – 4.6%.

This was the first time the movie screened on the network in HD; also having its HD premiere was late movie Drive Angry, which was programmed for the post-rugby crowd and averaged a solid 2.9% – 3.3%.

TV3 won Friday night, with The X Factor USA (7.2% – 9.9%), The Graham Norton Show (7.7% – 8.7%) and its Kiwi comedies.

But Norton challenger George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces started well for TV One, with 3.5% – 6.2%, while TV2’s HD re-run of The Middle was competitive with the first half of The X Factor.