HDTV Ratings: Hitman, The Mentalist, Road Cops

TV2’s HD hit, The Mentalist, took a hit last night — from a double-barreled assault by TV3 and TV One.

TV3’s HD premiere of the action movie, Hitman, was watched by 9.4% of the network’s target audience, 18-49 year-olds, compared with The Mentalist’s 11.7%.

Both channels lost viewers to TV One’s premiere of Richard Hammond’s Invisible Worlds, which rated the same as Hitman to score nearly double the viewership of Surviving Disaster the previous week.

It was a similar result with 25-54 year-olds but TV2’s core demographic, 18-39 year-olds, preferred Hitman over The Mentalist, and Hitman’s appeal over two hours proved stronger than that of The Mentalist and Ghost Whisperer combined.

TV3’s HD half-hour, Road Cops, continues to rate well, beating the first half of TV2’s Extreme Makeover: The Home Edition and TV One’s reality newcomer, Fire Scene Investigation.

TV3’s HD programming and unusually strong ratings for 3 News and Campbell Live helped the network to win the night.