HD Ratings: Struggle Street a Winner

TV1 struck gold on Wednesday when the premiere of Struggle Street won its slot in the 25-54 and 18-49 demographics.

The Australian spin on Benefits Street averaged 6.8% – 8.3% of the key demos and improved on lead-in Rachel Hunter’s Tour of Beauty (5.4% – 8.5%).

The only downside was the steep fall-off in viewership of Struggle Street, which opened with 9.2% of 25-54 year-olds and closed with 6.2% (the trend was similar in the other demos, too).

Even so, the premiere still doubled the average viewership of TV1’s 8.30 hour.

However, the gains didn’t flow on to Undercover Boss, which averaged only 2.7% – 3.6%.

TV2 dominated the night in all the key demos except 25-54, led by Shortland Street, Reno Rumble and The Big Bang Theory.

TV2’s rescheduled post-9pm comedies also are starting to catch on, with Mom averaging 5.5% -12.0% and Mike & Molly, 5.1% – 8.4%.

Brooklyn Nine Nine (3.0% – 4.1%) continues to be the block’s Achilles heel but rated well with 18-39 year-olds and household shoppers with kids.

TV3’s Best of Top Gear (3.1% – 5.1%) was out-rated by lead-in Story (3.5% – 5.8%), which was competitive with Seven Sharp except in the 25-54 demo, while the network’s re-run of Cowboys & Aliens averaged only 2.7% – 3.7%.

Consequently, TV3 distantly trailed its TVNZ competition all night long:

On Tuesday, the countdown towards the series final of The Mentalist (3.0% – 7.1%) proved a bigger lure for viewers than TV3’s superior Humans (3.4% – 5.2%).

The latter did get a consolidated viewership boost for the second episode, and while it wasn’t as big as the premiere’s, this week’s third instalment rated higher overnight than the second.

TV2 again dominated in all the key demos except 25-54 with Shortland Street and Reno Rumble while its SD re-run of 28 Days averaged 3.7% – 5.2%.

It won the night in three of the key demos, with the 18-49 race being the tightest: