Not Enough Kiwis Star Struck

Acclaimed comedy series Starstruck, which stars Kiwi Rose Matafeo, is the first casualty of the new season.

It will still screen Wednesdays but but no longer in peak hour: from tonight it will swap slots with repeats of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and shift to 10.05 (the latter will air at 9.05).

Despite excellent local and UK reviews, season two has drawn too few overnight viewers to sustain its primetime berth.

The season premiere two weeks ago averaged 1.1% of TVNZ 2’s core 18-49 audience, on the back of 2.0% for lead-in Wellington Paranormal.

Lead-out Cats rated fractionally lower, with 1.0%; Starstruck’s 25-54 viewership was 1.2%.

But last week’s episode sunk to 0.7% of 18-49s and 1.0% of 25-54s — in both demographics, it was outrated by Cats.

Last week’s ratings weren’t helped by Wellington Paranormal also free-falling, to 1.0% of 18-49s and 1.5% of 25-54s. But when a lead-out outrates a lead-in at that time of night, a scheduling switcheroo is inevitable.

Kudos to programmers for pairing an indelibly Kiwi double-act but viewers clearly prefer comedies like the movie The Hangover III, which averaged 2.1% of 18-49s and 2.7% of 25-54s to win the slot on February 9.