HD Ratings: Kiwi Whodunit No Longer Doing It

TVNZ 1 programmers will be perplexed that after a triumphant start, the latest season of The Brokenwood Mysteries is starting to look like ratings dead wood in the major commercial demographics.

Last Sunday’s episode easily won the 5+ race but averaged just 1.9% of 25-54 year-olds and 1.4% of 18-49s, the most important demos the networks use to measure the appeal of their programmes.

TVNZ 2’s movie Den of Thieves narrowly out-rated it in the 18-49 demo (1.5%) while Three’s movie Edge of Tomorrow was well ahead in the 25-54 stakes (2.4%).

The previous Sunday, Brokenwood lost by the same 25-54 margin to Three’s Skyscraper but was competitive in the 18-49 contest.

It’s a far cry from the season-eight premiere on August 7, when it dominated the slot with 3.1% of 25-54s and 2.4% of 18-49s. Even the 5+ rating has slipped, from 5.4% to 4.8% — although it still dwarfed its movie rivals.

But tonight it should have a chance to bounce back in the key demos: Die Hard on TVNZ 2 is an evergreen crowdpleaser but is more suited to Christmas programming than now while Three’s premiere — 2019’s Charlie’s Angels — was a box office bust.

It will also be interesting to see if tonight’s Masked Singer NZ reveal can again beat TVNZ 2’s MasterChef NZ.

Neither is a match for TVNZ 1’s Hyundai Country Calendar and Sunday but each has notched up wins over the other. Last week MasterChef won in both core demos but on August 14 Masked Singer was the champ.

Despite Brokenwood’s decline, TVNZ 1 was well ahead of the competition in the key demo shares for the night, with 29.8% of 25-54s and 28.5% of 18-49s, thanks to the popularity of 1 News at 6pm, HCC and Sunday.

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