HD Ratings: TVNZ 2’s Cunning Plan

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. proved more popular than the man from the railways on Thursday.

TVNZ 2’s repeat of the movie reboot of the TV series won its slot in all the core commercial demographics.

At its peak in the 25-54 demo, it averaged nearly twice as many viewers as TVNZ 1’s premiere of Around the World by Train.

The new platform for Black Adder’s Tony Robinson drew 3.1% of this audience over the hour whereas U.N.C.L.E. averaged 4.5% over two-and-a-half hours.

Many viewers switched over to U.N.C.L.E. after TVNZ 1’s Your Home Made Perfect ended.

It averaged 6.8% of 25-54s to win the 7.30 hour, the first half of which it lost in the other key demos to TVNZ 2’s Police Ten 7.

The popularity of the two 7.30 shows and TVNZ 2’s movie crushed Three’s The Titan Games and The Graham Norton Show across the board.

Norton’s ratings have plummeted since Three shifted it from Friday nights to Thursdays.

The new COVID-19 lockdown format was a disaster for the chat show locally, and reverting to repeats hasn’t helped its prospects against TVNZ 2’s shrewdly scheduled movies.

TVNZ 1 won the night in all the core demos except household shoppers with kids, which Sky TV dominated.

Here are Thursday’s 20 most-watched primetime programmes on the free-to-air HD channels (excluding +1 and in order of their 5+ rating and audience share):