HDTV Ratings: Californication vs Fringe, The Mentalist vs Outrageous Fortune/Transformers

TV3’s steamy sex-addict drama, Californication, last night scored its hottest ratings yet, with the HD premiere of season three.

It pulled 12.1% of 18-49 year-olds, compared to HD rival Fringe’s 7.7% on TV2, and 12.9% of 18-39 year-olds (vs Fringe’s 7%).

With 25-54 year-olds, the gap was similar but much narrower with household shoppers with kids: 10.9% vs 9.1%.

Californication was up significantly on time-slot predecessor Nurse Jackie, partly because HD lead-in Outrageous Fortune’s ratings were higher than normal across all the key demos (it was most popular with 18-39 year-olds — 21.3%).

This meant its HD competitor, a re-run of The Mentalist, could draw only 5.9%-7.5% of the age groups that advertisers crave.

Compare that to Monday night’s first-run episode, which steamrolled TV3’s HD repeat of the movie, Transformers, in the older demos but with TV2’s target audience, 18-39 year-olds, was only a few points ahead (15% vs 12.6%).