HD Ratings: The Resident Already Ailing

TVNZ 2 programmers will be hoping this weekend’s off-peak repeats of The Resident will have improved its sampling for Tuesday’s episode.

The network launched the hospital drama with back-to-back episodes on Monday and Tuesday after the top-rating My Kitchen Rules in a bid to bed it in quickly for its permanent post-MKR Tuesday slot.

But the momentum it hoped to build didn’t eventuate, with the series premiere averaging only 2.7% of TVNZ 2’s target audience, 18-49 year-olds, and Tuesday’s episode 2.2% of the same demographic.

The 25-54 viewership slipped by the same magnitude, from 2.8% to 2.3%, while the 18-39 rating was down almost a point between the two instalments, from 2.7% to 1.9%.

The steepest fall in the core commercial demos was among household shoppers for kids, where day-to-day viewership declined from 3.9% to 2.3%.

For Monday’s premiere, the HHS/k demo more than halved over the hour, which opened with 6.6% and closed with 2.4%.

There were similar declines in the 25-54 and 18-39 demos but 18-49 interest was steady.

However, the premiere averaged less than half the viewership of its lead-in MKR, which rated 5.3% – 8.8% in the key demos.

The return of Grey’s Anatomy suffered as a result, averaging 1.2% – 1.8% to finish behind both TVNZ 1’s Lucifer and Three’s 22 Jump Street.

While it out-rated Jump Street among HHS/k, in the same demo it drew even fewer viewers than TVNZ +1 broadcast’s of Criminal Minds.

Grey’s ratings were low on Tuesday, too, but improved among HHS/k.

However, it was still thrashed by TVNZ 1’s 20/20, which won the 9.30 hour in all the core demos except 18-39 with George Stephanopoulos’ James Comey interview.