HDTV Ratings: February 28-29

Season two of The Almighty Johnsons debuted Wednesday with a 25-54 rating well below its season-one average of  9.8%.

It drew 6.2% of this demographic, and while season two is in an earlier slot, the competition is much tougher: TV2’s The Big Bang Theory (12.3%) and Happy Endings (7.9%).

Such is the pulling power of Big Bang that both Johnsons and TV One’s HD option, Winners & Losers (8.2%), built in the second half of their hours.

The gap among 18-49 year-olds was narrow — Winners 6.5%,  Johnsons 6.2% — but Bang was still well ahead with 11.5%; likewise, household shoppers: Winners 8.9%, Johnsons 7.2%, Bang 13.1%.

Only with 18-39 did Johnsons come second (6.1%) but Bang was nearly twice as popular (11.9%).

Bang lead-in 2 Broke Girls continues to rate strongly, with roughly double the audience of TV One’s SPCA Rescue across key demos while Two and a Half Men averaged 12.7%-13.4% of the age demos and 17.9% of HHS.

TV3’s 9.30pm drama, Sons of Anarchy, slipped from last week amid a much tighter contest with TV One’s Harry’s Law and TV2’s The Walking Dead.

Anarchy won 25-54 (6.5%) and HHS (7.7%) but Dead stole 18-49  and 18-39 (6.0%).

On Tuesday, TV3’s NCIS duo rebounded but Go Girls and Rookie Blue still dominated from 8.30pm-10.30pm.

Go Girls averaged 12.3%-14.3% of the age demos and 16.1% of HHS compared to NCIS’ 8.1%-9.7% and 8.3% of HHS.

NCIS: Los Angeles retained most of its sister show’s lead-in but still couldn’t beat Rookie Blue.

Earlier in the night, The Secret Lives of Dancers drew only a quarter of The Middle’s viewership across the board.

While Missing Pieces had about half the 25-54, 18-49 and 18-39 viewership of Suburgatory, only threee-and-a-half points separated them among HHS.