HD Ratings: TV2 Sundays Under New Management

TV2 has axed Sunday HD comedy Anger Management after a second consecutive week of the kind of ratings that make TV executives see red.

From this Sunday it’s replacing the Charlie Sheen sitcom and its SD stablemate, Fool Britannia, with re-runs of Renters.

Both were beaten at the weekend by TV3’s The Simpsons and Family Guy.

The 7.30 episode of The Simpsons averaged 8.5% – 10.2% of the key demographics (versus Fool Britannia’s 3.6% – 6.8%) while Family Guy spawned 6.4% – 8.1% (vs Anger Management’s 2.8% – 4.8%).

Most troubling for TV2 would have been the fact that its target audience, 18-39 year-olds, deserted the network for TV3’s ‘toons.

And even though its 7pm re-run of The Big Bang Theory narrowly out-rated TV3’s Simpsons repeat — 4.6% – 7.0 %% vs 5.3% – 6.0% — the latter still drew more 18-39s.

The popularity of TV3’s ‘toon strategy helped its HD premiere of Paul to largely out-rate TV2’s HD re-run of National Treasure. Paul averaged 7.1% – 9.2% and National Treasure, 5.7% – 6.4%.

TV One’s MasterChef NZ was the night’s biggest drawcard — 8.7% – 10.5% — while lead-out Packed to the Rafters averaged 6.2% – 8.8% and House Husbands, 4.3% – 5.9%.

On Saturday, TV2 dominated with the HD re-run of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. While TV3’s Ice Road Truckers and CSI combi were competitive, the appeal of its Friday HD line-up — Modern Family, Sunny Skies, The Graham Norton Show — was dented by TV2’s movie, Herbie: Fully Loaded.

TV3 won the night among 18-49s but came off second-best in the other demos.

On Thursday, Bones (4.2% – 7.4%) finished third after Once Upon a Time (7.3% – 11.3%) and Agent Anna (5.7% – 10.1%) while on Wednesday Sons of Anarchy (3.5% – 7.8%) took a back seat to Hell’s Kitchen (5.8% – 9.5%).

Wild Colombia (2.7% – 5.3%) and Winners and Losers (3.0% – 4.7%) were mostly competitive but no match for The Big Bang Theory (14.5% – 21.0%) and 2 Big Girls (11.1% – 16.1%).

On Tuesday, Africa (6.2% – 9.0%) and Revenge (7.0% – 11.9%) see-sawed but were well ahead of NCIS (3.5% – 6.0%) while NCIS: Los Angeles averaged a competitive 3.2% – 4.9%.

Tuesday HD comedies Modern Family and Go On battled it out with reality HD duo Surveillance Oz and SCU: Serious Crash Unit for the relative handful of viewers not watching TV2’s My Kitchen Rules, which out-rated that night’s installment of lead-in Shortland Street (12.3% – 15.9%).