HDTV Ratings: April 11-12

TV One’s Castle wasn’t king of the ratings when it returned on Wednesday but it drew enough 25-54 year-olds to narrowly out-rate TV3’s The Almighty Johnsons.

The season-four premiere was nearly as popular with TV One’s target audience as the season finale of Winners and Losers the previous week: 8.0% versus 8.8%.

But it was down in other key demographics, particularly household shoppers: 6.4% vs 10.0%.

Johnsons averaged 7.8% of the 25-54 demo, which was a point higher than the previous week, and sharply increased its HHS rating from 5.4% to 8.6%, but slipped in the 18-49 and 18-39 stakes.

Neither Johnsons nor Castle were a match for TV2’s The Big Bang Theory and Happy Endings, although the latter continues to shed up to half the audience of its lead-in.

Sons of Anarchy won the 9.30 hour, pulling ahead of The Walking Dead in all the demos except 18-39, where its lead was much narrower: 6.7% vs 6.1%.

SPCA Rescue rebounded for its season finale but still finished third after Road Madness and 2 Broke Girls, which had higher ratings than its reality rivals combined.

On Thursday, Once Upon a Time continued to easily win the 8.30 hour, averaging 10.9%-15.6% compared to The Finder’s 5.6%-6.9%.