HD Ratings: The Rookie Earns Its Stripes

Three’s The Rookie earned its highest ratings so far on Monday when it crushed TVNZ 1’s Manifest and TVNZ 2’s Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back.

It benefitted from Married at First Sight’s heroic lead-in but its popularity also exposed the weakness of TVNZ’s competition.

The Rookie won the 9.00 hour in the five core commercial demographics, with averages of 3.7% – 5.6%.

It was delivered a bumper audience by MAFS, which out-rated Fair Go/The Casketeers and The Extreme Diet Hotel by 2:1, with averages of 5.3% – 10.8%.

MAFS’ appeal also spilled over into the opening half-hours of Manifest and 24 Hours.

Despite last week’s two-hour premiere being repeated in primetime on TVNZ 2, Manifest failed to improve, with a 25-54 average of only 2.1% and an 18-49 average of 1.5%.

However, it did beat 24 Hours in both demos, which averaged 1.8% and 1.1% respectively.

And lead-out Q+A, in its new slot, out-rated TVNZ 2’s The Walking Dead, with 1.2% of 25-54s (vs 1.0%) and 1.0% of 18-49s (vs 0.6%).

The latter’s ratings were so shocking that even Bravo’s Buried in the Backyard topped it.

However, The Rookie’s ratings didn’t help lead-out Designated Survivor, which averaged only 0.7% of 25-54 — four fewer points than its lead-in.

Three easily won the night with the biggest shares of all the core demos.