TVNZ 2’s Friday Night Strategy a No-Brainer

TVNZ 2’s Patriot Brains With Sue Perkins has slipped to third place on Friday nights a month after its premiere but the network’s lead-out line-up is sheer genius.

Last week the panel show’s share of 25-54 year-olds plunged from 14.2 (31,820 viewers) the previous Friday to 8.8 (23,750).

TVNZ 1’s 25-54 share for The Repair Shop was steady week-on-week: 20.2 (54,774) vs 21.0 (48,960) on March 3.

But Three’s 9.7 share (24,741) for the movie Little Nicky was down sharply on the previous Friday’s 16.5 share (32,718) for its NRL pre-game warm-up.

Patriot Brains did easily top Three’s season final of Lego Masters on February 24, with an 11.6 share.

So it will be telling to see how it fares against tonight’s action movie on Three, White House Down, which should rate higher than the Adam Sandler comedy.

The trend was the same in the commercial demographic TVNZ 2 targets. Patriot Brains’ 18-49 share last week was 8.1 vs 8.9 for LIttle Nicky and 19.6 for The Repair Shop.

Prime’s 7.30 opposition, a double-episode of Young Rock, recorded 25-54 shares of 0.1 for the first half-hour and 0.2 for the second; lead-out Pawn Stars’ share leapt to 4.4.

TVNZ 2 rebounded at 9.30 when Beauty and the Geek won the hour with a 25-54 share of 15.6 (vs 14.2 for TVNZ 1’s Selling Houses Australia) and an 18-49 share of 15.4 (vs 12.8).

The network’s deployment of So Dumb It’s Criminal just weeks after its Duke run also has paid off, with last Friday’s episode doubling the key demo shares of Three’s Aussie Gold Hunters repeat and beating TVNZ 1’s Kirstie & Phil’s Love It or List It: Brilliant Builds.

And earlier, TVNZ 2’s Shortland Street was competitive with TVNZ 1’s top-rating Seven Sharp — a 21.6 share of 25-54s vs the latter’s 23.6 — and scored double the key demo shares of Three’s The Project.

Note: These overnight ratings exclude viewership of the networks’ +1 SD channels.