HDTV Ratings: New York CSI Not Good for Wife

Replacing House with the HD procedural drama, CSI: New York, stripped stablemate The Good Wife of its previous week’s gains.

So dismal was the CSI spin-off’s ratings for TV3 that it may no longer be in the 8.30pm Tuesday slot by the time the first HD season of Outrageous Fortunes succeeds The Good Wife in mid-July.

It drew 4.6% of 18-49 year-olds, compared with HD rival Grey’s Anatomy’s 15.5%, on TV2, and SuperSwarm’s 10%, on TV One. Moreover, it was half the audience that regularly tuned into House.

As a result, lead-out The Good Wife inherited fewer viewers and was watched by only 5% compared to the previous week’s 8.2%. (More bad news for fans of The Good Wife — CBS Paramount has opted to release, in September, the first season on DVD only, and not Blu-ray, but it will include nine commentary tracks, deleted scenes and two behind-the-scenes shorts.)

Meanwhile, TV2 earned surprisingly good returns from its 10.30pm Tuesday re-run of the HD sci-fi re-make, V, which originally aired as an event miniseries late last year. Last night the first of four episodes was watched by 6.9% of 18-49 year-olds and 7.6% of the network’s target demo, 18-39 year-olds.

This bodes well for the show’s return to primetime, presumably 8.30pm Wednesdays from mid-July, hopefully on a double-bill with another sci-fi series that’s a must to see in HD, Fringe.

Warner Bros will offer season two of Fringe on region-free Blu-ray in September in the US and UK, and a month later in Australia — which probably will be a couple of months ahead of its NZ release.

Season one of V also is slated for an October 27 Blu-ray release across the Tasman.