HD Ratings: Runner Stumbles But Bang Big

TV2’s fast tracking of The Big Bang Theory saw the season nine premiere easily win its slot on Wednesday while TV3’s network movie premiere of Runner Runner was the night’s biggest loser.

The Ben Affleck box office bombed averaged only 1.7% – 2.7% of the commercial demographics off the back of The X Factor UK’s 4.1% – 5.9%.

The British talent show was the only bright spot on 3’s schedule, with lead-in Story averaging a mere 1.6% – 3.2% against Seven Sharp’s 5.1% – 10.7%.

The night’s most popular programme was TV2’s Shortland Street (10.2% – 20.2%), which helped lead-out Reno Rumble to average 6.1% – 10.6%.

Remarkably, Big Bang improved on its lead-in the 18-49 and 25-54 demos.

It averaged 6.0% – 9.5% across all four key demos, which was enough to earn it commanding channel shares of 23.8% – 26.4%.

Lead-out Mom averaged 5.1% – 6.7% to mostly win its slot ahead of Mike & Molly (4.0% – 4.8%) and Brooklyn Nine Nine (1.9% – 2.7%).

Big Bang’s popularity hurt TV1’s Benefits Street (4.4% – 6.8%) in the 18-49 and 25-54 demos.

BB drew 7.3% of 25-54s compared to 6.3% for the previous week’s re-run while Benefits Streets dropped from 6.2% of this demo last week to 4.2% and its 18-49 rating declined from 5.7% to 4.8%.

TV1’s Rachel Hunter’s Tour of Beauty averaged 5.4% – 6.2%  and Undercover Boss USA 2.1% – 4.3% — enough for the network to win the night in the 25-54 demo and split the 18-49 demo with TV2 (which easily won the other key measures):