HD Ratings: Soap Special Saps Star Search UPDATED*

Shortland Street’s Roimata (Shavaughn Ruakere) and TK (Ben Mitchell)

The year’s first hour-long “winter” edition of Shortland Street led to the lowest ratings yet for The X Factor NZ.

Monday’s episode still rated extraordinarily well for its TV3 time slot, averaging 8.1% – 11.2% of the major demographics.

But it was dwarfed by Shortland Street’s 16.6% – 27.5%, with the serial’s viewership peaking in the second half-hour that overlapped with the first half of X Factor.

The rest of the talent quest then faced the first half-hour of a two-hour episode of My Kitchen Rules, which averaged 12.9% – 18.3%.

X Factor lead-out, the HD re-run of the movie Wanted, averaged 5.7% – 8.0% opposite Criminal Minds’ 3.9% – 9.7% and The Following’s 2.9% – 6.4%.

* Since posting this, TVNZ has released the following statemement: 

TV2 dominated last night’s ratings with the premiere winter one hour of Shortland Street and a special episode of My Kitchen Rules. 

A consistent ratings winner, the one-hour episode of Shortland Street easily won its 7 – 8pm timeslot with an average audience of 664,000 in all people 5+.

45% of the available 18-49 audience at that time chose to watch Shortland Street, helping it achieve a massive 19.3 rating in this demographic and three times the audience of any other channel. TV3’s The X Factor NZ achieved a 19% share of the available audience in its 7:30 – 8:35pm timeslot in this same demographic.

The episode also saw significant growth in the Shortland Street audience compared to the previous four week average for the show.

General Manager of Commissioning, Production and Acquisition at TVNZ, Andrew Shaw says, “The winter season of Shortland Street is a high point for viewers and last night once again proved that this is the biggest show in New Zealand.

South Pacific Pictures Chief Executive Officer Kelly Martin says “We are incredibly proud of the continuing success of Shortland Street. As the show gears towards acknowledging its 21st anniversary in late May, audiences can be assured of much more excitement to come.”

A special ‘Comeback Kitchen’ episode of My Kitchen Rules went onto lead the next two hours of primetime viewing across all key demographics, achieving a 35% share in 18-49s.

Andrew Shaw says of My Kitchen Rules’ success: “The growth and success of juggernaut My Kitchen Rules is just phenomenal and unprecedented. We are obviously pleased with the result but had no doubts it would be a winner with the New Zealand audience.”

Shortland Street’s one-hour episodes continue on Monday nights throughout the winter season.