HD Ratings: The Project Pips Seven Sharp

Three’s The Project had a rare win over TVNZ 1’s Seven Sharp in the core commercial demographics on Monday.

The former averaged 5.3% of 25-54 year-olds and 4.3% of 18-49s vs SS’s 5.1% / 3.9% (TVNZ 2’s Shortland Street averaged 4.8% / 4.4%).

What made this even more surprising was the much bigger lead-in SS enjoyed from 1 News at 6pm, which averaged 9.4% / 6.9% of these demos vs Newshub Live at 6pm’s 6.4% / 5.3%.

Moreover, you would have thought SS would have rated higher on the coattails of TVNZ 1’s Olympic Games coverage, which largely dominated primetime.

However, Three also scored another victory in the 8.00 hour, when its overlap of The Block NZ and 9-1-1 narrowly out-rated the games in both key demos.

The Block averaged 4.4% of 25-54s and 3.6% of 18-49s, the games 4.3% / 3.5% and TVNZ 2’s MasterChef Australia 4.0% / 3.0%.

At 8.30, 9-1-1 averaged 3.9% / 3.0%, the games 4.7% / 3.5% and Wife Swap Australia 2.8% / 2.4%.

The Olympics also ruled the rest of the night while Lone Star 9-1-1 finished third after TVNZ 2’s Renters repeats.

Prime’s bizarrely programmed 8.30 movie Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang averaged 0.1% of both key demos.