HD Ratings: Match Fit a Great Fit

Three’s decision to renew men’s health show Match Fit paid off on Wednesday, when the season two premiere nearly won the 7.30 hour in the network’s highly-prized 25-54 demographic.

It averaged 4.1% of these viewers vs 4.3% for TVNZ 1’s repeat of The Chase: The Bloopers and 3.6% for TVNZ 2’s Snack Master.

Although The Chase edged out Match Fit to win the slot overall, the latter beat it in two quarter-hour segments.

The premiere wasn’t as popular with Three’s other core demographic, 18-49 year-olds, averaging 2.6% vs 3.3% for Chase and 3.1% for Snack Master.

However, with Match Fit’s target audience, males 25-54, the ex-All Blacks challenge won the hour with 3.9% vs 3.4% for Chase and 2.8% for Snack Master.

Moreover, Match Fit quadrupled the 25-54 viewership of the previous week’s Parental Guidance and improved the channel’s share of this demo from 4.6% to 24.6%.

The 18-49 viewership and share increased threefold.

Match Fit’s popularity also doubled the 25-54 viewership of SAS Australia, to 2.0%, but it still lost to TVNZ 2’s Taskmaster (3.0%) and TVNZ 1’s Kirstie & Phil’s Love It or List It (2.2%).

Coronation Street won the 9.30 hour in the free-to-air stakes but Sky’s State of Origin coverage dominated, with the live telecast drawing twice as many 25-54 viewers as Three’s (2.0% vs 0.9%).

In the 5+ demo, however, the gap was much closer: 1.3% vs 1.1%.

TVNZ 1 won the night with 30% shares of the key demos while Three narrowly took second place.

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