HD Ratings: Weakest Link No Game Changer

TVNZ 1’s Weakest Link Australia reboot lived up to its name on Sunday, when the premiere finished third in the core commercial demographics.

The game show averaged 2.4% of the network’s target audience, 25-54 year-olds, and 1.9% of 18-49s, continuing TVNZ 1’s 8.30 Sunday ratings doldrums.

While it was out-rated in every quarter-our segment by the movies on TVNZ 2 and Three, it did average a higher 25-54 viewership than the previous week’s One Lane Bridge — although it didn’t face the same formidable competition from Sky Sport 1.

Weakest Leak shed more than half the audience of its lead-in, Sunday, which averaged 5.0% / 3.5% of the key demos on the back of Hyundai Country Calendar’s 9.4% / 7.4%.

The popularity of TVNZ 1’s post-news hour schedule is decimating TVNZ 2’s new-look Sunday night line-up, with Mr Bean averaging just 1.5% / 1.3% and Inside Taronga Zoo 2.1% / 1.9%.

But the channel’s movie London Has Fallen helped it to regain ground, winning its slot with averages of 3.1% / 2.4% vs 2.3% / 1.9% for Three’s Spider-Man 2 — despite the latter having the advantage of a stronger lead-in from Lego Masters Australia (4.0% / 3.5%).

TVNZ 1’s The Panthers ended its 9.30 run with averages of 1.1% / 0.8%.

Despite Weakest Link’s underwhelming debut, TVNZ 1 still won the night with 32+ shares of the core demos while Three finished well ahead of TVNZ 2.

International rugby on Sky Sport 1 on Saturday wiped out all the free-to-air channels in both core demos, which led to TVNZ 1’s The Highland Vet averaging merely 1.7% / 1.3% for its premiere.

On Friday, TVNZ 2’s Have You Been Paying Attention? and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown ruled from 8.30-10.30.

Note: These overnight ratings exclude viewership of the networks’ +1 SD channels.