HDTV Ratings: August 9-10

Sons of Anarchy bounced back in the ratings last night for its season-three finale.

It drew 9.5% of household shoppers with kids compared with 6.3% the previous week, and won the slot against The Walking Dead (8.5%) and Real Life (7.9%).

But Walking Dead was the winner in the other demographics that matter most: 18-39 (11.1%), 18-49 (10.9%) and 25-54 (9.6%).

Moreover, it was up in each of these demos for the third week in a row.

So that will make next week’s launch of Underbelly NZ: Land of the Long Green Cloud more challenging for TV3 than it would have been at 8.30pm, where TV One’s local HD drama, Nothing Trivial, continues to shed viewers.

Last night’s episode scored a 25-54 rating of 8.6% (compared with 11.1% last week), an 18-49 rating of 7% (9.3%) and a HHS/kids rating of 8.2% (11.7%).

Tuesday’s premiere of Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year rated dismally, with a 25-54 rating of 4.9% and an 18-49 rating of 4.8%, or nearly half the viewership of HD lead-in NCIS.

NCIS is performing strongly against Grey’s Anatomy in the 25-54 demo, losing to the latter by barely a point, and also was competitive in the 18-49 rating: 8.1% vs 10.5%.

But the gap was much wider with 18-39 year-olds, TV2’s target demo, where Grey’s drew 11.5% and NCIS, 7.4%.