HD Ratings: Top Gear Takes Bite Out of MasterChef NZ

Revved-up ratings for Prime’s Top Gear dented the appeal of Sunday’s cooking shows on TV One and TV3.

The season finale of the SD petrolhead hour averaged 6.1% – 6.6% of the major demographics, compared to 4.8% – 8.8% for MasterChef NZ and 3.8% – 6.2% for The Great Food Race.

MasterChef only lost to Top Gear’s Burma special in the 18-39 demo but viewership was down on the previous week’s 5.9% – 12.8%, when Top Gear averaged a largely lower 4.6% – 6.9%.

Lower ratings for MasterChef also hurt lead-out Offspring, which went from dominating the 8.30 hour the previous Sunday to finishing third.

It averaged 3.4% – 5.7% while HD rivals Agents of SHIELD and The Blacklist fought it out for the top spot.

The former rated 5.1% – 7.2% on the back of Yogi Bear’s 6.9% – 9.5%; The Blacklist averaged 4.5% – 6.6%, and although it lost in each of the key demos, the gap was unusually narrow, suggesting it benefitted from the previous week’s two-part special.

But Hawaii Five-O was another washout (1.0% – 1.9%) opposite The Tomorrow People (4.5% – 5.1%) and even was beaten by Rake (1.1% – 2.3%).

Thanks to a much stronger news hour and the popularity of Sunday, TV One’s ratings and shares generally were up on the previous week’s, TV3’s were down and TV2’s steady.

Sunday’s peak-hour HD channel ratings and shares were:

• Adults 18-49: TV One, 6.3 rating/21.5 share; TV2, 5.7 rating/19.6 share; TV3, 4.7 rating/16.0 share
• Adults 18-39: TV One, 5.4 rating/20.4 share; TV2, 5.9 rating/22.0 share; TV3, 4.0 rating/15.0 share
• Adults 25-54: TV One, 7.3 rating/22.6 share; TV2, 6.0 rating/18.5 share; TV3, 5.2 rating/16.0 share
• HHS: TV One, 8.0 rating/22.9 share; TV2, 7.6 rating/21.7 share; TV3, 6.5 rating/18.5 share.

On Saturday, TV2’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I blitzed the competition, with a 7.5% – 8.3% average, as did the network’s premiere of Men in Black 3 on Friday: 8.8% – 13.1%.

Thursday’s Arrow (5.6% – 6.6%) won the 8.30 hour with adults 18-39 and 18-49 but was beaten by CSI (4.4% – 8.8%) in the 25-54 and household shopper demos; their TV One competition, Mr Selfridge, mustered only 2.5% – 3.6%.

At 7.30, TV One’s steadily building The Art of the Architect (4.0% – 6.4%) out-rated the season finale of TV3’s Cadbury Dream Factory (2.2% – 5.2%) but not TV2’s Motorway Patrol (11.7% – 14.5%).