HD Ratings: Three’s Friday Night Massacre

A combined assault by TVNZ 1 and TVNZ 2 unseated Three’s top-rating talent of The Graham Norton Show and 7 Days on Friday.

TVNZ 1’s Britain’s Got Talent dominated in the 25-54 and 18-49 demographics from 7.30-9.30 while TVNZ 2’s 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown topped 7 Days in all the core commercial demos.

Norton even proved vulnerable to TVNZ 2’s Game of Games, which out-rated it in every key demo except 25-54.

BGT averaged 4.0% of 25-54s versus 2.5% for Games, 3.7% for Cats, 3.5% for Norton and 2.6% for 7 Days.

In the 18-49 demo, BGT averaged 3.0%, Games 2.2%, Cats 3.4%, Norton 2.0% and 7 Days 1.9%.

This was a shocking reversal of fortune for Three, which has dominated Friday nights for years with Norton and 7 Days.

And in the 18-39 and household shopper demos, TVNZ 2 ruled the night, with Shortland Street, The Simpsons, Games and Cats winning their slots.

TVNZ 1 won the night in the 25-54 and 18-49 demos while Three’s 25-54 share crashed from 20.5% the previous week to 13.6%; its 18-49 share of the night also collapsed week-on-week, from 21.0% to 12.6%.

There was better news for Three on Saturday, when its retro double-billing of Shrek and Back to the Future helped the network to win the night in all the core demos.

Shrek lost to BGT in the household shopper and 18-49 demos but won with 18-39s and seesawed with 25-54s while BTF dominated in all the key demos.

Shrek also out-rated TVNZ 2’s Tron: Legacy while TVNZ 1’s laudable primetime programming of The Little Drummer Girl averaged only 0.1% – 0.7% of the top demos.