HD Ratings: New Crime Drama Doesn’t Motivate Viewers

TV3’s premiere of crime drama Motive bombed on Thursday, when it averaged an abysmal 1.6% – 4.4% of the major demographics.

The network clearly hoped the Canadian newcomer would be its next CSI or Bones, which it lost to Prime after restructuring its 20^th Century Fox TV deal.

Motive was most popular with household shoppers with kids but couldn’t rate above 2.6% in the other key demos, despite a bumper lead-in from The Block NZ.

The latter averaged 8.4% – 12.3% and Motive even was out-rated by its lead-out, Botched Up Bodies (2.6% – 4.6%).

TV2 dominated post-8.30 with the network HD premiere of The Lucky One (5.8% – 9.1%), which swept all the key demos off the back of Code: 1 (5.9% – 8.1%).

The reality half hour took a big hit from The Block NZ, which topped it and TV One’s Restoration Man (3.8% – 6.6%) across the board.

After a few weeks of faltering ratings, Upper Middle Bogan improved to 4.5% – 7.0%, while The Kumars averaged 0.9% – 2.8% — which was less than half its lead-in from Mrs Brown’s Boys.

Thursday’s peak-hour HD channel ratings and shares were:

• A18-49: TV One, 5.7 rating/19.5 share; TV2, 8.2 rating/28.1 share; TV3, 5.8 rating/19.9 share
• A18-39: TV One, 4.6 rating/16.9 share; TV2, 7.5 rating/27.5 share; TV3, 6.3 rating/23.1 share
• A25-54: TV One, 7.5 rating/22.7 share; TV2, 8.4 rating/25.6 share; TV3, 6.6 rating/20.1 share
• HHS/k: TV One, 7.4 rating/20.7 share; TV2, 10.7 rating/29.8 share; TV3, 8.4 rating/23.3 share.

On Wednesday, The Block NZ (7.8% – 10.2%) easily beat TV One’s My Kitchen Rules NZ (5.8% -7.9%) in the 18-39 and HHS demos and see-sawed with 18-49 year-olds but lost the 25-54 race.

It yo-yoed with TV2’s Mike & Molly (8.1% – 9.8%), and out-rated Undateable (5.8% – 7.2%) and the first half of The Big Bang Theory (5.8% – 7.8%).

The Block NZ’s popularity was a big boon to lead-out 3rd Degree (5.5% – 8.7%), but TV One’s Benefits Street (6.7% – 8.2%) was more competitive with TV2’s 2 Broke Girls (6.4% – 8.8%).

At 9.30, the networks see-sawed with My Baggy Body (3.4% – 4.5%), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (4.7% – 6.2%), Stacey Dooley Investigates (2.4% – 4.2%) and Surviving Jack (2.9% – 5.2%). 

Wednesday’s peak-hour HD channel ratings and shares were:

• A18-49: TV One, 7.6 rating/26.2 share; TV2, 6.8 rating/23.5 share; TV3, 6.1 rating/21.1 share
• A18-39: TV One, 6.6 rating/23.8 share; TV2, 7.0 rating/25.3 share; TV3, 6.2 rating/22.6 share
• A25-54: TV One, 9.2 rating/28.9 share; TV2, 6.8 rating/21.4 share; TV3, 6.4 rating/20.1 share
• HHS/k: TV One, 8.9 rating/25.9 share; TV2, 8.9 rating/26.0 share; TV3, 7.5 rating/21.8 share.