Treasure Island New TVNZ 2 Gem

The latest season of Celebrity Treasure Island has struck the ratings mother lode for TVNZ 2.

Monday’s premiere toppled TVNZ 1’s Fair Go as the reigning 7.30 champ in the core commercial demographic and drew twice as many 25-54 year-olds as Three’s House Rules NZ.

Overnight the castaways franchise averaged 88,099 adults (4.29 rating/24.29 share) compared to 66,753 (3.25 rating/20.52 share) for Fair Go and 71,428 (3.48 rating/20.59 share) for its stablemate, Border Patrol (signalling a switch back to TVNZ 1 after initial curiosity value in CTI).

Both Fair Go and Border Patrol were down sharply week-on-week — the former lost nearly 30,000 viewers and the latter nearly 20,000 — while TVNZ 2’s 7.30 viewership leapt 23,000+.

House Rules NZ was down about 25,000 viewers, to 42,458 (2.07 rating/12.28 share).

CTI’s popularity sparked more interest in lead-out Fire Country, which improved from 33,229 viewers the previous week to 46,229 (2.25 rating/16.98 share).

TVNZ 1’s The World’s Most Dangerous Roads pipped it for first place at 8.30 (52,308, 2.55 rating/19.43 share) while Three’s Far North ended its run with 23,097 viewers (1.13 rating/9.34 share).

Even so, CTI’s success carried through to 9.30, when Mega Mansion Hunters won the hour with 21,468 viewers (1.05 rating/15.30 share).

The revitalised line-up helped TVNZ 2 to boosts its Monday peak demo share from 13.66 the previous week to 20.05, with Three edging it out for second place (20.07) behind TVNZ 1 (30.11).

CTI was the sixth-most watched show of the night in the 25-54 demo, after 1 News, Newshub Live at 6pm, Seven Sharp, The Chase and The Project.