HD Ratings: What Next? So What?

The season premiere of TVNZ 1’s What Next? on Tuesday lost to both TVNZ 2’s Will & Grace and Three’s NCIS.

It averaged 3.0% of the network’s 25-54 demographic compared to W&G’s 4.3% and NICS’ 4.4%.

Moreover, it drew less than half the 25-54 viewership of the previous week’s How the Other Kids Live.

The premiere also finished third in the other core commercial demos.

TVNZ 1 was more competitive at 7.30, when Emergency Call and The Force respectively averaged 4.8% and 4.4% against 4.7% for Three’s Lost & Found.

But all three were dwarfed by TVNZ 2’s My Kitchen Rules, which averaged 7.8% of 25-54s, 5.8% of 18-49s, 3.8% of 18-39s and 11.5% of household shoppers with kids.

However, Three ruled post-8.30 with NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles. Both series won their slots in all the core demos, with the latter averaging twice as many viewers as TVNZ 2’s Grey’s Anatomy in the 25-54 and 18-49 demos.

TVNZ 1’s 9.30 rival, 20/20, averaged 2.7% of 25-54s and 2.1% of 18-49s.

Earlier, 1 News scored exceptional averages in all the key demos, with 9.1% of 25-54s vs Newshub Live’s 4.9%, which helped lead-out Seven Sharp to beat The Project across the board.

TVNZ 1 won the closely contested night with 25-54s while TVNZ 2 took out the other top demos.