HDTV Ratings: March 7-11

Sunday’s free-to-air HD premiere of The Dark Knight helped TV2 to win the night with nearly seven hours of wall-to-wall HD programming, from Pretty Little Liars at 5.30pm to Revenge at 11.40pm.

The Batman sequel averaged 9.1%-10.7% of the key demographics, and was roughly twice as popular as TV3’s HD drama, The Big C, which started halfway through the movie.

And the winged crusader drew 4-5 times as many viewers as TV3’s re-run of The Almighty Johnsons during its final hour.

Earlier in the night, The Big Bang Theory won its slot with 25-54, 18-49 and 18-39 year-olds but slightly more household shoppers chose to watch Politically Incorrect Guide to Grown-Ups.

TV3’s Terra Nova had mixed fortunes on Saturday, when it averaged 3.7%-5.8% of key demos.

It was most popular with 25-54 year-olds and least popular with 18-39 year-olds (because of the competition from TV2’s American Idol).

Idol also dominated Friday night, with twice as many 18-39 , 18-49 and 25-54 viewers as TV3’s Glee, and an even bigger share of HHS — which not even TV3’s HD stalwart The Graham Norton Show could claw back (although the chat show’s second half was tops with older demos).

On Thursday, TV2’s Once Upon a Time out-rated TV3’s Bones by about 2:1 while on Wednesday the see-sawing contest continued  between The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy.

Anarchy averaged 9.7% of HHS (versus Dead’s 71.%), 7.2% of 25-54 (vs 6.7%), 6.2% of 18-49 (vs 7.2%), and 6.0% of 18-39 (vs 6.6%).

TV One’s HD option, Harry’s Law, drew 3.4%-6.2%, to finish third.

TV2’s Wednesday’s HD comedies again delivered stellar ratings off the back of a top-performing Shortland Street.