HDTV Ratings: May 17-21

Monday’s 90-minute episode of Shortland Street reduced the rest of the HD neighbourhood to rubble.

It averaged 20.1%-27.9% of the key demographics and wiped out TV3’s HD sitcoms Last Man Standing and Modern Family.

Airing in the middle section of SS meant the latter drew less than half of its previous week’s viewership, with ratings of only 2.6%-3.6%.

Last Man Standing fared even worse, averaging 1.5%-2.4%.

SS’s popularity delivered the double-epiosde of Revenge a staggering 19.1% of household shoppers.

In other demos, however, it rated a more modest but still time slot-winning 9.9%-11.4%.

TV3’s re-run of Hitman averaged a respectable 8.0%-9.1% and TV One’s Criminal Mind largely held up with 5.7%-9.6%.

But the latter’s stablemate, Person of Interest, dipped to 2.8%-5.3%.

On Sunday night, TV2’s HD premiere of The Blind Side predictably trampled all over yet another re-run of Walk the Line on TV3.

It averaged 13.0%-14.6% versus the Johnny Cash bio’s 4.6%-5.1%.

But TV3 did slightly better with its re-run of the first Modern Family episode rating 5.5%-7.1% compared to The Food Truck’s 10.9%-15.6% and The Big Bang Theory’s 9.2%-10.7%.

Ice Road Truckers made a solid start on Saturday, largely rating higher than Terra Firma with averages of 3.6%-6.0%, although it still lost to the SD competition.

However, CSI bombed in its first Saturday airing, with ratings of only 3.1%-4.1%.

Friday’s Sherlock improved on its premiere, averaging 3.1%-6.3% but was no match for The Graham Norton Show’s 8.3%-9.7%, which was more competitive with American Idol’s semi-final than Glee’s 4.4%-8.7%.

On Thursday, TV2’s Once Upon a Time found 2-3 times the viewership of  TV3’s The Finder.