HDTV Ratings: August 28-30

HD comedy Auckland Daze will be leaving TV One programmers feeling dazed and confused.

Thursday’s episode rating significantly better than the previous week’s premiere, averaging an extraordinary 7.2% of TV One’s target audience, 25-54 year-olds, and 4.5% – 6.7% of other key demographics.

That’s a dazzling turnout for a post-10pm local comedy — at least on the surface.

But drill down into the data and it’s clear that most of this audience was inherited from Mrs Brown’s Boys, which Auckland Daze was unable to sustain into its second half.

For instance, the 25-54 rating slumped from 10.8% at the start to 3.6% at the end, and there was a similar exodus of other demos: 18-49, 8.3% > 3.2%; 18-39, 6.4% > 2.5%; household shoppers, 11.3% > 2.0%.

Such was not the case with The Block NZ. It averaged 11.4% – 14.4% and built over the hour to beat TV2’s season finale of Rescue 1.

Wednesday’s episode averaged 10.7% – 14.6% and helped TV3 to win the night with Grand Designs Revisisted and the series finale of The Slap, which rebounded with 4.3% – 5.4% of key demos (it out-rated TV One’s Castle among 18-49 and 18-39 year-olds but both lost to TV2’s Live at the Apollo).

Charlie Sheen’s Anger Management isn’t enjoying the same ratings sheen as Two and a Half Men, averaging only 8.2% – 9.1% on Wednesday: it and lead-out Cougar Town (5.7% – 6.5%) were demolished by Grand Designs.

However, TV2 stole Tuesday night with HD crime-fighting duo The Mentalist (9.9% -16.2%) and Body of Proof (6.3% -12.8%).