HDTV Ratings: May 9-10

Replacing its Thursday line-up with a movie had mixed results for TV One.

The network HD premiere of The Hurt Locker averaged 7.3% of TV One’s target audience, 25-54 year-olds, over two-and-a-half hours.

That’s higher than the 6.0% average the previous week but the first hour rated lower than the last episode of The Chawners’ Last Chance did in the same slot: 7.9% versus 9.0%. (And clearly TV One’s had second thoughts about ditching Chawners’ mid-run — it was due to resurface late-night but has gone into scheduling limbo, presumably for reconsideration).

The Hurt Locker lost its first hour in the 25-54 race to TV2’s Once Upon a Time, which averaged 9.2%-13.0% of the key demographics to draw 2-3 times the viewership of TV3’s The Finder.

At 10.30, the season four premiere of Fringe averaged 2.3%-3.3%, which was up to a point lower than Haven’s average the previous week.

While Wednesday’s The GC dipped overall in viewership, TV3 will be delighted with its performance in the demos that matter most to the network.

Averaging 8.6%-11.4%, it built substantially on HD lead-in Road Cops and rivalled TV2’s 2 Broke Girls for the 18-39 viewership: 10.1% versus 11.1%.

It’s also no coincidence that the ratings for The Almighty Johnsons have never been higher this season since The GC became its lead-in, with the third-to-last episode averaging 8.2%-10.3%.

That’s still well behind The Big Bang Theory’s extraordinary 16.2%-19.9% — but not Happy Endings’ 10.3%-12.4% — and well ahead of TV One’s Undercover Boss USA.

And the domino effect continued with Sons of Anarchy getting a ratings spurt: this season’s penultimate episode averaged 7.8%-10.7% to easily out-rate Castle in its new 9.30 slot on TV One and lost to TV2’s Hell’s Kitchen only in the 18-39 demo (last week HK won across the board).