HD Ratings: Taskmaster Match Fit

Wednesday’s season three premiere of Taskmaster NZ won its slot in the core commercial demographics but the night gave Three more cause to celebrate.

TVNZ 2’s hit version of the UK original averaged 2.2% of 25-54 year-olds and 2.0% of 18-49s.

It easily led TVNZ 1’s Location Location Location (2.0%/1.4%) and Three’s Sort Your Life Out NZ (1.9%/1.2%).

But there was better news for Three at 7.00, when The Project out-rated TVNZ 1’s Seven Sharp in the 18-49 demo and level-pegged with it in the 25-54 race.

And lead-out Match Fit again won the 7.30 hour, averaging 3.9% of 25-54s and 2.6% of 18-49s.

Match Fit’s popularity has been bad news for TVNZ 1’s former hit, Give Us a Clue, which has struggled all season.

This week’s episode averaged just 2.4% of 25-54s and 1.7% of 18-49s to also trail TVNZ 2’s MasterChef Australia (2.7%/2.3%).

But TVNZ 1 rebounded at 9.30, when Coronation Street dominated with averages of 1.3%.1.2%.

TVNZ 2’s Guessable (0.6%/0.7%), which won last week when it aired an hour earlier, finished third after Coro and Three’s This Time Next Year (1.4%/0.8%).

The popularity of TVNZ 1’s The Chase and 1 News at 6pm helped it to win the night in the key demos, leading Three by about three points in each and TVNZ  2 by 10 points in the 25-54 demo; in the 18-49 race, the gap was five points.

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