HDTV Ratings: June 22-25

Sunday Theatre’s suffragette drama, Votes for Women – What Really Happened, got the thumbs-up from critics but not viewers.

The NZ Herald said it did “a fine job of focusing on New Zealand historical events” and The Dominion Post praised the “fine acting” and a script that ”mostly avoided being too preachy”.

But as was the fate of last year’s NZ Sunday Theatre costume drama, Bliss, viewers voted with their remote controls for the competition.

The HD docudrama averaged only 3.4%-5.0% of the major demographics compared to:

❑ 8.7%-13.3% for the previous week’s Siege;

❑ 3.0%-6.7% for Robin Hood’s HD premiere;

❑ 8.5%-11.1% for the SD premiere of girl power blockbuster Salt.

TV2 also dominated the night with its HD comedy line-up while episode two of TV3’s Golden averaged 4.1%-6.1% opposite Planet Dinosaur’s 5.3%-8.4%.

Both were down on their previous week’s debuts.

On Monday, TV One’s season finale of Criminal Minds averaged 7.4%-11.3% compared to Desperate Housewives’ 11.6%-15.4% and Fast & Furious’ 5.4%-6.9%.

At 9.30, the penultimate episode of Revenge rated 8.9%-12.6% and a re-run of Criminal Minds, 5.1%-6.3%.

Earlier in the night, an hour-long Shortland Street again dwarfed everything else while lead-out Neighbours at War was twice as popular as Modern Family (6.0%-8.3%).

Saturday saw gains for The ITM Fishing Show (3.1%-4.0%) and Ice Road Truckers (6.7%-7.8%) while CSI out-rated Judy Bailey’s Australia: 3.3%-4.2% versus a disastrous 1.2%-3.9%; Hyundai Country Calendar averaged 4.3%-10.2%.

TV2’s comedies and The Voice Australia owned Friday night in all the key demos.

TV3’s Glee averaged only 3.6%-5.3% while The Graham Norton Show slipped to 8.0%-8.9% opposite TV One’s Endeavour (1.8%-6.4%).

At 10pm, Hounds could muster only half the viewership of lead-in 7 Days.