Three Records First Monthly Ratings Win in Three+ Years

Three posted its first monthly 25-54 win in three-and-a-half years ahead of its leaders debate last night topping the ratings.

The 90-minute special averaged 10.9% of 25-54 year-olds, 9.6% of 18-49 year-olds, and 9.0% of 18-39 year-olds and household shoppers with kids to win in all four core demos as well as viewers 5+ (11.0%).

The clean sweep followed The Block NZ winning the 7.30 hour in the four commercial demos — which helped Three to win the night across the board.

From 6.00-10.30, it averaged a 36.7% share of 25-54s, which was almost as much as TVNZ 1 (18.1%) and TVNZ 2 (19.7%) combined.

The win came hours after the network reported it had recorded a monthly win in the 25-54 demo for the first time since January 2014.

It was cemented by Three winning four nights in the last week of August: Tuesday and Wednesday (all four demos), Friday (25-54, 18-49, 18-39) and Sunday (25-54, 18-49, HHS) — which was enough to average a 22.6% share across the week.

It also posted time slot wins for Westside (25-54, 18-39, 18-49) on Monday, The Block NZ (all four demos) and NCIS (25-54, 18-39, 18-49) on Tuesday, The Block NZ (all four demos) and NCIS: LA (25-54, 18-39, 18-49) on Wednesday, The Watch (25-54, 18-39, 18-49) on Thursday, The Graham Norton Show (25-54), 7 Days and Fail Army (all four demos) on Friday, and The Block NZ (all four demos) on Sunday.

But TVNZ 2 won post-8.30 Sunday with its repeat of The Hunger Games (5.9% of 25-54, 5.0% of 18-49) crushing the final of TVNZ 1’s The Replacement (3.4% of 25-54, 1.8% of 18-49) and Prime Suspect: Tennison (1.9% of 25-54, 1.0% of 19-49), and beating Three’s repeat of Taken 2 (4.1% of 25-54, 3.6% of 18-49).

Three’s network movie premiere of Everest also lost to a TVNZ 2 re-run (Kung Fu Panda 2) on Saturday — the former averaged only 2.8% of 25-54 and 2.3% of 18-49 compared to the latter’s 5.0% and 4.5%.