Shocking Season Low for Far North

Three’s Kiwi crime drama Far North is haemorrhaging viewers in the network’s most important commercial demographic.

Monday’s episode hit a season low when it averaged just 0.89% of 25-54 year-olds.

That equated to 18,260 viewers in this demo, a drop of nearly 10,000 on the previous week’s 27,819.

That means Far North has bled more than 31,000 adults since its premiere two weeks ago (49,331).

Overnight ratings in a specific demo are just a snapshot of a show’s success, when other factors, ranging from streaming to consolidated numbers that include time-shifted viewing, are just as important a metric.

But it still signals a sharp turn-off, especially when lead-in The Traitors NZ increased its viewership to 77,418 viewers (3.77 rating/18.71 share).

And that was on the back of lead-in The Project beating both Seven Sharp and Shortland Street, setting up what should have been a big night for Three.

The exodus of nearly 50,000 adults after Traitors drove up The Rookie’s viewership on TVNZ 2. It averaged 66,856 adults 25-54 (3.26 rating/20.46 share), twice as many as the previous week.

TVNZ 1’s World’s Most Dangerous Roads also picked up more traffic week-on-week, to average 58,137 viewers (2.83 rating/14.88 share).

It helped lead-out The Murder of Logan Mwangi to average 29,296 viewers (1.43 rating/11.34 share) but The Rookie: Feds won the 9.30 hour with 39,062 viewers (1.90 rating/18.86 share). Three’s Newshub Late averaged 19,305 viewers (0.94 rating/9.37 share).

Earlier, TVNZ 2’s Taskmaster NZ improved its 7.30 viewership (66,105 viewers, 3.22 rating/13.36 share) but TVNZ 1’s Fair Go (86,373 viewers, 4.21 rating/20.07 share) still ruled while Border Patrol was competitive (71,417 viewers, 3.48 rating/16.19 share).

The night’s most-watched programmes in the 25-54 demo were: 1 News, The Chase (5.30), The Project, Newshub Live at 6pm, Seven Sharp, Fair Go, The Traitors NZ, Border Patrol, Shortland Street and The Rookie.

The biggest free-to-air peak-hour demo shares were: TVNZ 1, 29.77; Three, 19.83; TVNZ 2, 17.50; Eden, 6.60; Duke, 4.17;  Bravo, 2.53; Rush, 2.58; Sky Open, 2.43; HGTV, 0.49.