HD Ratings: National Treasure TVNZ 1 Loses Lustre

TVNZ 1’s Sunday night anchor National Treasures lost its sparkle on Sunday, when its audience more than halved week-on-week.

Last night’s episode averaged only 1.3% of the network’s target audience, 25-54 year-olds, compared to 2.9% the previous week.

Lead-in Sunday also was down, from 4.3% to 4.1%, while warhorse Hyundai Country Calendar could muster only 5.8% — still a decent average by today’s standards but well down on the prior weekend’s 6.8%,

Some of TVNZ 1’s audience switched over to Prime’s Outback Truckers at 7.30, which improved week-on-week from 0.5% of 25-54s to 1.2%.

But most were glued to Three’s Married at First Sight Australia (5.6%) and its network movie premiere of Overboard (2.6%), with both slots making weekly gains.

TVNZ 2 had a shocking night, with its network movie premiere of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets averaging only 1.7% off the back of A Current Affair’s 1.7%; in the channel’s 18-54 core demo, the averages were 1.4% and 1.1% respectively.

The night’s other big loser was TVNZ 1’s Prodigal Son, which averaged just 0.5% of 25-54s vs 1.3% the previous Sunday.

Not even TVNZ 1’s top-rating news hour could stop Three from winning the night in all the key commercial demos.

TVNZ 1’s The Savoy on Saturday also lost viewers week-on-week, with its 25-54 average plummeting from 2.5% to 1.0%, while lead-in Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad nosedived from 4.2% to 0.9%.

TVNZ 2 dominated with its movies Jack the Giant Slayer and Deepwater Horizon crushing Three’s Sherlock Gnomes and The Girl in the Spider’s Web, although the latter rated better than all of TVNZ 1’s shows, apart from Tipping Point Lucky Stars.

TVNZ 1 still managed to win the biggest 25-54 share on Saturday, thanks to the popularity of The Chase and 1 News at 6pm, but TVNZ 2 romped home in the other core demos.

Sky’s NRL coverage on Friday was competitive but TVNZ 1’s The Repair Shop and Big Fat Gypsy Weddings still dominated FTA ratings and the network narrowly won Thursday night in the 25-54 and 18-49 demos.