HDTV Ratings: March 22-26

Go girlfriend ... Leslie Mann guest starred as Cam's "date" in last night's Modern Family

It was good news-bad news for TV3 on Monday, with Modern Family posting its highest ratings yet but HD stablemate Homeland taking a hit after several weeks of building momentum.

Modern Family was unusually competitive in all the demographics, and won its slot with 18-39 year-olds, TV2’s target audience.

It averaged 8.6% of this demo opposite TV2’s The Amazing Race (7.9%) and TV One’s The Force (8.1%).

The HD comedy finished third in other demos, with 7.2% of 25-54 (versus 11.8% for Force and 9.4% for Race), 7.4% of 18-49 (vs Force’s 9.9% and Race’s 8.6%) and 8.0% of household shoppers (vs Force’s 10.8% and Race’s 10.1%).

Lead-in Last Man Standing also was up on previous weeks but Homeland slumped, averaging only 4.0%-5.6% of the key demos.

Most viewers were split between TV One’s Criminal Minds and TV2’s Desperate Housewives: the latter was tops in the 25-54 (11.5%) and 18-49 (9.7%) ratings, and the latter in the 18-39 (8.6%) and HHS (10.9%) stakes.

It was a similar story at 9.30pm, when TV3’s CSI finished a distant third to TV One’s Person of Interest and TV2’s Revenge.

Although Revenge scooped all the demos, Person of Interest was competitive in each except for HHS, where more than five ratings points separated the two.

TV2’s HD comedy marathon on Sunday (The War at Home, The Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly, Old Dogs) helped it to carry the night, with only TV One’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Grown-Ups and Sunday beating its sitcoms among 25-54 year-olds.

Saturday’s return of Hyundai Country Calendar won its slot among 25-54 and 18-49 year-olds but deserved to rate higher than the former’s 8.0% given its moving take on a Catlins cattle muster and its spectacular HD footage.

TV3’s Terra Nova is shedding viewers as it lumbers towards its series finale, averaging only 2.4%-4.1%, while the network’s HD re-run of Independence Day drew 4.4%-5.7% to rate several points behind TV2’s My Sister’s Keeper.

On Friday, TV2’s American Idol largely crushed TV3’s HD double-bill of Glee and The Graham Norton Show, with, ironically, the latter winning only among TV2’s 18-39 crowd.

But TV3’s 7 Days and WANNA-BEn out-rated TV2’s HD rival, Dating in the Dark Australia.

On Thursday, TV3’s Bones spin-off, The Finder, found some support.

It averaged 5.7%-7.1%, or roughly half the 18-39 and HHS viewership of TV2’s Once Upon a Time but easily beat TV One’s World’s Strictest Parents in all the key demos except HHS.