HDTV Ratings: September 1-4

Observe and Report's Seth Rogen

TV2’s security guard comedy, Observe and Report, last night blitzed the HD competition, despite starting half-an-hour later.

Its 9pm premiere dominated all-but one of the key demographics, narrowly losing to Tom Scott’s 1981 Springbok tour dramatisation, Rage, in the 25-54 ranking.

Otherwise, it roughly drew double the viewership of Rage and TV3’s The Boat That Rocked, although the latter’s ratings were averaged over nearly three hours.

It was a similar contest at 7pm, where TV One’s Global Radar was twice as popular as TV3’s Raising Hope, except with 18-39 year-olds, where the gap was only a point.

With 15-29 year-olds, the shows were level pegging.

The ITM Fishing Show’s shark odyssey is helping to buoy its ratings, although Saturday’s episode was still dwarfed by the season finale of Hyundai Country Calendar: 10.8% of 25-54 year-olds vs 6.6%.

But TV3’s live NZ’s Next Top Model finale won its slot, as did stablemate The Graham Norton Show, with every key demo except householder shoppers for kids, who preferred TV2’s movie, Bridget to Terabitha.

Interestingly, TV2’s new Friday family movie strategy is pumping new blood into The Vampire Diaries’ ratings, which were up significantly across the board, with 8.2% of 18-39s, 7.6% of 18-49s and even 6.6% of 25-54s.

TV One’s vampy HD competition, Unzipped, didn’t fare so well, with a 25-54 rating of only 2.1%.

Meanwhile, TV2’s final primetime screening of Chuck was the lowest-rated yet, rating above 5% only with 15-29 year-olds; expect the series to resume late-night in November.

Sunday’s HD winners were (rating > channel share):

25-54: Rage 8.7% > 20.4%, Observe and Report 8.3% > 21.8%, The Boat That Rocked 5.9% > 17.0%.

18-49: Observe and Report 8.8% > 25.7%, Rage 7.3% > 19.4%, The Boat That Rocked 5.0% > 16.0%.

18-39: Observe and Report 10.9% > 33.6%, The Boat That Rocked 4.9% > 16.2%, Rage 4.8% > 13.5%.