HD Ratings: Nicholas Drama Tops With Older Viewers

Sunday’s much hyped Louise Nicholas dramatisation captured fewer viewers in the key demographics than the movies on TV2 and TV3.

Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story ended the Ford NZ Sunday Theatre season with only 3.6% – 4.8% of the major demos, although it won its slot with 7.1% of the country and was even more popular with viewers aged 40-64 (8.5%).

But in the demos that matter most to advertisers and the networks, it trailed TV2’s premiere of Rock of Ages (3.8% – 6.5%) and TV3’s time slot winning repeat of Shooter (6.1% – 7.2%).

The NZ Herald praised director Robert Sarkies for doing a “great job” of evoking the time period, and Michelle Blundell, who played Nicholas in later life, for portraying her “steely resilience and determination to achieve justice with convincing authenticity”.

And in today’s Dominion Post, TV critic Jane Clifton thought it had “a fair few chilling, skin-crawling scenes” and said its funding was “money and effort superbly well-spent”.

TV One’s season finale of Radar Across the Pacific averaged 5.0% – 7.5% and lost to TV2’s The Neighbors (7.1% – 10.9%) and the last leg of TV3’s X Factor Australia, which averaged 6.5% – 7.3% overall.

Neighbors lead-in The Middle also rated well enough to largely win its slot, on 7.2% – 10.9%.

Week-on-week, TV3 improved the most and won the night’s 18-39 and 18-49 races.

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

• A18-49: TV One, 6.1 rating/22.0 share; TV2, 5.6 rating/20.5 share; TV3, 6.8 rating/24.7 share
• A18-39: TV One, 5.6 rating/19.6 share; TV2, 6.3 rating/21.9 share; TV3, 7.6 rating/26.5 share
• A25-54: TV One, 8.0 rating/25.0 share; TV2, 6.1 rating/18.9 share; TV3, 7.3 rating/22.7 share
• HHS/k: TV One, 8.1 rating/24.1 share; TV2, 8.5 rating/25.4 share; TV3, 7.8 rating/23.3 share.

On Saturday, TV2’s Superman Returns dominated, on 4.6% – 5.6%, but TV One’s Hyundai Country Calendar (6.4% – 8.7%) won its slot while TV3’s The Secret Life of Dancers limped on with 1.6% – 2.2%.

But its lead-out, Ice Road Truckers, improved on its season premiere, to average 4.2% – 4.6%, whereas TV3’s 9.30 Blue Bloods (0.9% – 1.9%) was hurt by TV One pre-empting its low-rating Vera for the Robin Williams movie Good Morning Vietnam (3.6% – 4.4%).

On Friday, TV2 ruled with The Voice Kids Australia (10.6% – 13.5%) and The Switch (6.1% – 8.9%), although TV3’s Kiwi comedies won their slots.