HD Ratings: Rust Special Bites the Dust

Monday’s fast-tracking of George Stephanopoulos’ interview with Alec Baldwin about the fatal shooting on the set of his movie Rust didn’t trigger much interest on TVNZ 1.

It averaged just 0.8% of the network’s core commercial demographic, 25-54 year-olds, and 0.6% of 18-49s.

Viewers were much more fired up over TVNZ 2’s Naked Attraction (2.2% / 1.5%) and Three’s re-run of Cocaine: Living With the Cartels (1.3% / 1.1%).

Even Prime’s Monday night movie relic, Total Recall, was competitive, with 0.8% and 0.4% of the key demos.

TVNZ 1 fared better an hour earlier, when RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service (2.8% / 1.6%) out-rated the competition in the 25-54 demo but lost in the 18-49 race to Three’s Sydney Harbour Force (1.7%) and level-pegged with TVNZ 2’s First Dates Australia.

Battling it out at 7.30 were Three’s The Block: Fans vs Faves (4.0% / 2.9) and TVNZ 1’s Fair Go (4.5% / 3.1%) and Barkley Manor (3.2% / 2.6).

TVNZ 2’s Beauty and the Geek Australia finished third with 2.1% / 2.0%.

TVNZ 1 dominated from 5.00-7.00 with The Chase and 1 News at 6pm while TVNZ 2’s Doctor Who finale could muster only 0.7% of both core demos.

But at 7.00 Three’s The Project won the half-hour, with demo averages of 4.8% / 3.7% against TVNZ 1’s Seven Sharp (4.4% / 2.9%) and TVNZ 2’s Shortland Street (3.9% / 3.5%).

As a result, both TVNZ 1 and Three keenly contested the night. TVNZ 1 averaged a 25.8 share of 25-54s and Three, a 24.1 share; in the 18-49 pursuit, TVNZ 1 averaged a 23.8 share and Three 24.8.

Note: These overnight ratings exclude viewership of the networks’ +1 SD channels.