HDTV Ratings: January 26-30

TV One’s Monday night HD reality hits Piha Rescue and Rapid Response last night took a tumble in the ratings.

Each averaged 7.6% of the network’s target audience, 25-54 year-olds, compared to 10.6% for Piha’s premiere two weeks ago and 12.2% for Rapid’s.

TV One’s HD crime drama, Criminal Minds, also has slipped, from 11.9% of 25-54s for the premiere to 10.2%.

But it was still competitive with TV3’s HD re-run of The Transporter that helped the network to win the night.

Transporter dominated most of the demographics, although TV One’s new HD stablemate for Criminal Minds, Person of Interest, is maintaining its initial popularity, with 7.9% of 25-54s (versus 9.6% for Transporter’s second hour).

TV3’s HD premiere of Monsters vs Aliens on Sunday out-rated TV2’s SD re-run of Wall-E in all of the key demos except household shoppers with kids and across the board was more popular than TV One’s North/Ocean Giants combo.

TV3’s HD re-run of Meet Dave didn’t fare as well, with TV2’s SD movie, Van Wilder Party Liaison, easily beating it.

Saturday’s Keeping Up With the Joneses would struggle to keep up with the competition if it was stronger than TV2’s Wipeout and TV3’s umpteenth re-run of Everybody Loves Raymond while the return of The Graham Norton Show on Friday again helped to make it a winning night for TV3 (as did The X Factor Australia’s resurgence against TV2’s American Idol).

And fans of TV3’s excellent HD thriller, Kidnap and Ransom, will be disappointed to learn the network isn’t buying the second series.

Although it decided not to before airing the mini-series, the justification was borne out by Thursday’s conclusion drawing less than half the viewership of TV2’s Embarrassing Bodies/Kitchen Nightmares combo. It also trailed TV One’s Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and Absolutely Fabulous.