The premiere of New Zealand’s first season of The X Factor has topped TV3s previous ratings hit The Block.
According to MediaWorks the first episode had an average total audience of 487,700 which grew throughout the episode, peaking at 546,600 in the last quarter-hour.
By midnight Sunday, there had been 12,900 Video-on-Demand streams of the episode.
“We are absolutely delighted by the audience response,” MediaWorks Head of Programming Mark Caulton said.
“The X Factor NZ has been years in the planning, and it has been well worth the wait.”
While the ratings are outstanding for TV3, they are dwarfed by other TVNZ produced reality shows, TV blog Throng says.
The first NZ Idol series in 2004 attracted 885,600 viewers, 787,000 switched in for the third series of Dancing With The Stars New Zealand in 2007, and last year’s premiere of New Zealand’s Got Talent found 934,820 viewers.
The first episode of TV3 hit DYI show The Block attracted an average of 374,600 viewers.
Nonetheless yesterday’s The X Factor NZ premiere was a huge ratings success for TV3, with more than one million New Zealanders tuning in at some point during the 90-minute episode.
The show was also a hit on social media, with four of the top five trending topics last night in New Zealand about the programme.
The X Factor NZ Facebook has already more than 38,500 followers, and a meme about contestant Mitchell Wahl (and his chickens) was viewed by more than 123,000 people within 30 minutes, TV3 said.
Episode two of The X Factor NZ screens tonight at 7.30pm on TV3.
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