HDTV Ratings: February 8

TV2’s new-look HD comedy block got off to a big bang on Wednesday but TV3’s HD re-run of Die Hard 4.0 proved lively competition for the season-two premiere of The Walking Dead.

The Bruce Willis franchise opened modestly, facing the last quarter-hour of The Big Bang Theory, but climbed from 6.1% of 25-54 year-olds to peak at 10.8%.

It averaged 8.3% over two-and-half hours compared to Dead’s 8%.

With TV2’s target audience, 18-39 year-olds, Dead averaged 7.1% and Die Hard 7.3%.

But Dead dominated among 18-49s (8.2% vs 7.5%) and household shoppers (10.9% vs 10%).

The first Two and a Half Men episode with Ashton Kutcher was the most popular show of the night, averaging 18.9%-22.5% across the key demographics.

Newcomer 2 Broke Girls was almost as big a hit, averaging 18.8%-20.9% while the return of Big Bang rated 16%-18.4%.

The movie-length premiere of Dead roughly drew half the viewership of lead-in Big Bang.

TV One’s HD options, Winners & Losers and Harry’s Law, could muster only 6.5% and 4.7% respectively of the network’s target audience, 25-54s.