HDTV Ratings August 7-9

Dogs gone?

That could be the fate of TV3’s Dogs in the City following its disastrous ratings debut on Thursday.

The HD reality hour averaged only 2.9% – 3.2% of key demographics, compared to 10.3% – 13.4% for its lead-in, The Block NZ.

That’s half the viewership Bones was delivering in the same slot and was fatal for lead-out Inside NZ: Nazi Hunter, which averaged only 1.2% – 2.3%.

The season-two premiere of Episodes fared about the same on TV One, with ratings of only 1.6% – 2.3% (compared to lead-in Mrs Brown’s Boys’ 6.7% – 10.3%).

The Block won its slot in all the key demos and rated even higher on Wednesday, when it averaged 13.2% – 15.0% — albeit against weaker competition.

But unlike Dogs in the City, its Wednesday lead-out, Grand Designs Revisited, was able to capitalise on The Block’s popularity to average 7.3% – 9.4% and largely won the 8.30 hour except among household shoppers.

By dipping into the Two and a Half Men well once two often, with two hours of Charlie Sheen re-runs, TV2 suffered a rare Wednesday night defeat from 7.30-9.30.

But it bounced back at 9.30, with Hell’s Kitchen steaming ahead of TV One’s Castle and TV3’s The Slap.

The latter slipped from the previous week to average 2.7% – 3.3% while the former scored 3.2% – 4.8%

Tuesday’s First Crossings on TV One struggled to gain traction, averaging only 5.2% – 7.5% against TV2’s The Mentalist (9.4% -13.0%) – which drew double the audience of TV3’s NCIS re-run.

However, the bad news for TV2 was the steep drop-off between The Mentalist and Body of Proof, which averaged only 4.2% – 7.3%.

That put it largely neck-and-neck with TV One’s Coppers but still well ahead of TV3’s Hawaii Five-0 (2.1% – 3.6%).

Earlier in the night, TV3’s Kings Cross ER averaged 5.1%- 8.7% and TV One’s Coastwatch, 5.6% – 9.5%.