HDTV Ratings: The Event, Spies and Lies, Glee, NZ Detectives

TV3’s Outrageous Fortune replacement, the HD conspiracy thriller, The Event, last night won its slot with the audience the network is targeting in 2011: 25-54 year-olds.

It averaged 10.7% of this demo over the course of its hour-long premiere, opening with 10.6% and closing with an unusually consistent 10.5%, peaking at 10.9% in-between.

But in other key demos, including TV3’s traditional 18-49 viewership, it largely trailed TV2’s The Celebrity Apprentice.

However, the network would have been pleased with the result given it could never hope for the 15%-plus juggernaut ratings of Outrageous Fortune.

But it will be less-than-gleeful about another signature HD series, Glee, which has been struggling since it returned to 7.30pm Friday two weeks ago.

TV2’s repeats of Two and a Half Men and Gary Unmarried last week thrashed the high school musical sensation in the 18-49 demo, which was well down on NZ Next Top Model’s viewership and led to lower ratings for the comedies that followed, including the hitherto unassailable 7 Days at 9.30pm.

TV3 will be hoping Graham Norton’s new series, which will premiere in HD on December 3, will help to build viewership for the panel comedy.

The first NZ – and HD — drama in this year’s Sunday Theatre slot, Spies and Lies, was more popular than most of the British dramas that have aired in it, averaging 9.9% of 25-54 year-olds.

And while TV One’s Monday night HD newcomer, NZ Detectives, slipped in its second week, to 8.9% of 25-54 year-olds, to tie with TV3’s HD movie, Alien vs Predator, with household shoppers with kids it easily out-rated the monster showdown and rivalled the popularity of TV2’s HD hit, The Mentalist.