Will TV3’s Award-Winners Become Ratings Winners?

As of tonight, TV3 has the best HD double-act of the week: Modern Family and Homeland.

This afternoon each series won Writers Guild of America Awards: the former for best episodic comedy (for the season two episode, Caught in the Act), and the the latter for best new series.

Homeland's Damian Lewis and Claire Danes

Tonight, for the first time, TV3 will screen Modern Family back-to-back with Homeland, creating an unbeatable 90 minutes of comedy and drama.

This follows the premiere of Homeland flopping last week at 9.30, prompting TV3 to switch its slot with CSI, which also rated badly.

Although TV3’s taking a big risk promoting an untested drama of Homeland’s complexity to 8.30, it offers viewers a clear alternative to the formulaic dinosaurs on TV One (Criminal Minds) and TV2 (Desperate Housewives).

Moreover, Saturday’s re-run of Homeland’s premiere rated higher than the original airing, and while it was still out-rated by Revenge, the premiere of which TV2 re-ran opposite it, the margin wasn’t as great.

On the back of The X-Factor Australia finale, Homeland averaged 5.4% of 25-54 year-olds (versus Revenge’s 7.4%), 5.3% of 18-49s (vs 6.8%), 5.6% of 18-39s (vs 7.1%) and 7.3% of household shoppers (vs 7.7%).