HD Ratings: Norton Not All Talk

Talk about Sod’s Law. The same week Three revealed it’s demoting The Graham Norton Show to 9.30 Thursdays, the chat show rebounded after months in the doldrums to win the 8.30 hour in the network’s core commercial demographics.

This week’s episode, which guest starred Kate Winslet, Stanley Tucci, Orlando Bloom, Aisling Bea, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Silk City and Ellie Goulding, averaged 3.3% of 25-54 year-olds and 2.3% of 18-49s.

It out-rated its lead-in, Grand Designs NZ, and was competitive with the last half-hour of TVNZ 1’s Outbreak: The Virus That Shook the World while beating the expose’s lead-out, Highway Cops.

It also trounced TVNZ 2’s Travel Guides NZ, which averaged 2.5% and 1.8% of the 25-54 and 18-49 demos.

TVNZ 2’s Casualty 24/7, which started midway through Norton, proved more competitive among 18-49s, with whom it won the 9.00 hour.

But the second half drew with TVNZ 1’s Coronation Street from 9.30, which went on to win its slot in both key demos.

As for Outbreak, it averaged 3.8% of 25-54s and 2.5% of 18-49s to beat TVNZ 2’s Shortland Street and Police 10-7 in the former but not the latter.

The overall strength of TVNZ 1’s line-up won the night’s biggest shares of all the major demos.