HD Ratings: TV One Plays Vicious Game

TV One turned out not to have a gay old time with its new comedy Vicious.

The network announced after this morning’s ratings analysis that as of September 12, the Ian McKellen-Derek Jacobi vehicle would shift from 9.05 Thursday to 10.05.

Lead-in Gavin and Stacey also is being demoted, from 8.30 to 9.30, while Winners and Losers is being dumped altogether.

Taking over the 8.30 Thursday slot will be the final season of another Australian HD drama, Packed to the Rafters.

The fate of the Gavin and Stacey re-runs is not surprising, given the comedy never rated that well originally on Friday nights.

But the ratings for Vicious clearly came as a shock to programmers: it averaged only 2.5% – 5.1% of the key demographics and was beaten even by TV3’s low-rating HD combo of The Almighty Johnsons (4.6% – 6.3%) and Bones (3.4% – 4.2%), both of which, not coincidentally, were up on previous weeks.

That was fatal for an already struggling Winners & Losers, which has suffered from numerous time slot changes.

Thursday’s episode was the lowest rating yet, averaging only 1.1% – 2.0%.

The winner at 9.30 was TV2’s HD reality newcomer, Obsessive Compulsive Cleaner, which averaged 5.4% – 7.5% on the back of Arrow’s 7.8% – 9.5%.