HDTV Ratings: May 3-6

Sunday’s network HD premiere of Sherlock Holmes easily won its slot but suffered an extraordinary fall-off in viewing – the reasons for which even the master sleuth would struggle to deduce.

It averaged 7.6%-9.3% of the key demographics but fell from opening peaks of 11.9%-15.4% to lows of 3.1%-4.0%.

The steepest drop was among household shoppers, viewership of which declined 12.3 rating points over the two-and-a-half hours.

But in its first hour, the movie averaged 9.5%-12.7% whereas TV3’s HD option Touch could muster only 2.9%-4.3% of key demos for its final 8.30pm Sunday airing.

Sherlock Holmes got a huge boost from TV2 replacing Happily Divorced with a second Sunday re-run of The Big Bang Theory as its 8pm lead-in.

It rated 11.6%-14.0% compared to 8.0%-9.7% for Happily Divorced the previous week and was only marginally less popular than the 7pm re-run (which left The Food Truck into its dust across all demos).

Mike & Molly also benefitted from the strategy, with its numbers up on the previous week, too.

TV One’s 9.30pm HD drama, Call the Midwife, continues to rate solidly, with 6.0% of 25-54 year-olds and 7.6% of HHS – which was 5-6 times the viewership of HD lead-out of Enlightened.

Saturday’s HD clash between TV One’s Hyundai Country Calendar and TV3’s season premiere of ITM Fishing Show saw the latter draw about half the audience of the former — it was most popular with 25-54 year-olds (4.5%) and HHS (4.9%).

TV3’s HD repeat of Alien vs Predator out-rated lead-in Terra Nova, with ratings of 4.6%-5.0%, but finished behind the competition.

TV3 had a better night on Friday, when The Graham Norton Show out-rated the second half of TV2’s American Idol in all the key demos except HHS while TV One’s network HD premiere of An Education averaged 4.3% of the 18-49, 25-54 and HHS demos to finish a distant third.

On Thursday, TV3’s The Finder challenged TV2’s Once Upon a Time in the 25-54 stakes, with only 1.5 points separating the two – although the gap was wider in other demos, with Time being twice as popular with HHS and 18-39 year-olds.