HDTV Ratings: October 25

Repeating Person of Interest in primetime so soon after its first run proved disastrous for TV One on Thursday – and rightly so.

What used to be the industry leader has become so pathetically risk-averse that executives think it acceptable to saddle viewers with three consecutive weeknights of wall-to-wall repeats.

As of next week, the only first-run show between 7.30 and 10.30 on Wednesday will be Is Modern Medicine Killing You? while on Thursday and Friday only Coronation Street represents the ‘new’ .

Mercifully, the wretched Brendhan & Jason’s Brit Comedy Friday is being terminated early.

But its replacement, from November 9, is repeats of Country Calendar by a different name: themed highlights culled from previous seasons (the first of these rated strongly on Saturday).

There are some series that appear to be repeat-proof, such as the loathsome Criminal Minds, of which TV One’s audience never seems to tire.

But with all of TVNZ’s output deals and programming expertise, it beggars belief that in the build-up to Christmas, and with top-rating NZ’s Got Talent as a springboard for the rest of the week, this is the best its flagship channel can offer.

Strategically, it does make sense to re-run Person of Interest ahead of the next season but as a summer filler — not peak-hour mid-week two months out from Christmas and within a few months of it going off-air.

How bad did it do? It averaged 1.9% – 4.6% of the key demos, and was competitive with the second half of TV3’s movie, Evan Almighty, only among household shoppers and 25-54 year-olds.

Evan Almighty’s low ratings (3.8% – 5.0%) didn’t do the return of Rove LA any favours, which opened its second season with 3.8% – 4.3%.

TV2’s dynamic duo of Police Ten-7 (11.0% – 13.1%) and Motorway Patrol (11.4% – 14.3%) again dominated the night.