HDTV Ratings: February 23

Hawaii Five-O’s ratings improved marginally last night but couldn’t ride the wave of its lead-in from TV3’s coverage of the Christchurch earthquake.

The episode that should have aired Tuesday screened instead of SVU at 8.30pm.

It rated higher than the previous week’s SVU, and pulled more viewers than the previous week’s Five-O episode.

But viewership was well down on TV3’s 60 Minutes special and was less than half that of TV2’s HD sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, which aired from 8.30pm-9pm.

Five-O drew 6.5% of 18-49 year-olds, 8% of 25-54 year-olds and 7.6% of household shoppers with kids, compared to Bang’s 14.4%, 14.2% and 16.4% in the same demographics.

Five-O also was watched by fewer viewers than HD lead-out Sons of Anarchy, which drew 8.6% of 18-49, 9.1% of 25-54 and 9.6% of HHS/kids.

Despite TV One’s continuing quake coverage, Anarchy’s ratings were higher than the previous week with 18-49 and 25-54 year-olds.

TV2’s three-hour comedy block also continued to perform strongly, with new episodes of The Big Bang Theory being the most popular with TV2’s key demo, 18-39 year-olds (16.4%), followed by Two and a Half Men (15.1%) and Cougar Town (12%).