New Season: Call (Brooklyn) 999

TV2’s rescuing of its Wednesday comedy block can’t come quick enough after last night’s line-up was thrashed in all the commercial demographics by TV1 and TV3’s.

Marry Me averaged only 3.5% – 4.4%, Two and a Half Men 0.7% – 3.5%, Mom 2.2% – 3.7% and Brooklyn Nine-Nine 2.2% – 3.7%.

Even before its disastrous season premiere, TV2 had decided to run B99 for only two weeks and replace it and Mom with The Big Bang Theory and 2 Broke Girls from April 8.

The two-hour block’s weakness was bad news for the season premiere of Once Upon a Time, which averaged merely 2.0% – 3.0% of the key demos.

TV2’s Wednesday wipeout was due predominantly to the appeal of TV3’s The Bachelor NZ (5.5% – 6.8%) and a re-run of the movie This Means War (4.1% – 5.0%).

But TV1 was also strong, with Fair Go ( 3.7% – 10.2%) winning its half-hour in the 24-54 and household shoppers with kids demos and stablemate Rapid Response (3.4% – 6.2%) losing to 2.5 Men only in the 18-39 demo.

The second episode of TV1’s I Am Innocent (3.1% – 6.4%) seesawed with This Means War in the 25-54 and HHS/k demos but the season premiere of The Fixer flopped (1.1% – 2.5%), although it was more popular than Once Upon a Time with TV1’s 25-54 target audience.

Wednesday’s channel shares and ratings for the HD networks were: