'Campbell' ratings now matching 'Simpsons'

The current affairs ratings battle started with a scam and a bang, and ended with bowls and a whimper.

The golden ratings weather that had blessed Campbell Live since the launch story of a drivers' licence scam ended on Thursday, when its ratings fell to those of his predecessor, The Simpsons.

Close Up had 484,100 viewers and won in all demographics, more than double the 212,000 on Campbell Live who watched a story about Ratana Church's political allegiances, Jaquie Brown's debut story on bowling clubs, and the inaugural Book Club slot.

The slack end to the week was not enough to pop TV3's bubble.

Head of news Mark Jennings said it was Easter weekend and "the motorways were probably jammed with our viewers heading out of town".

TVNZ's Bill Ralston saw "positive signs there for us, and I'm incredibly optimistic that Close Up will be the winner on the day".

Total Media's Martin Gillman said TV3 would be "laughing all the way to the bank" but Campbell Live was still in its honeymoon period.

Unitec School of Communication senior lecturer Peter Thompson said TV3 should be able to sustain a reasonable-sized audience and its high early ratings gave Campbell Live room to experiment to find out what worked best.

"TV One will be looking carefully at what's going on. Certainly, if Campbell Live starts pulling even, TVNZ will be looking closely at how to change Close Up's format, which is not radically different from when Paul Holmes was there."

Mr Thompson said Prime had held Paul Holmes' audience up, but he doubted they were happy.