Ratings Wars: Seven Sharp eclipses The Project in first week

The ratings are in for Seven Sharp's first week with new hosts Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells and it's come in leagues ahead of its competition The Project.

The new hosts took the helm last Monday, following Toni Street and Mike Hosking's surprise departure and got off to a massive start as 467,000 Kiwis tuned in to see how they might shake things up, rail-roading The Project's viewership of just 126,000.

As the week went on, Seven Sharp stayed well ahead of the competition, clocking up an average weekly audience of 418,100 compared to The Project's 141,200.

And in the shows' key commercial demographic of ages 25-54, Seven Sharp drew in an average of 115,000 viewers compared to The Project's 51,000.

TV3's The Project. Photo / Supplied

But things might be on a downward trend if last week is anything to go by. Over the course of the week, initial interest dropped off, we had a public holiday and some great weather and as a result, Seven Sharp's numbers began to decline.

From Monday - when Barry and Wells made their debut - to Tuesday, the show lost some 33,000 viewers and by the end of the week they'd dropped from 466,000 viewers to 367,000 - a decline of 21 per cent.

It could be worse. Seven sharp endured a major ratings drop-off when it first debuted in 2013; more than half a million Kiwis tuned in for the first-ever episode before ratings took a dive to a dismal 310,000 just a week later.

Barry and Wells return for their second week of Seven Sharp this evening and only time will tell if they can keep the numbers up.