Holmes - the real struggle lies ahead

Paul Holmes on the set of his show at Prime's Albany studios. Picture / Martin Sykes

A week of negligible ratings have rammed home the struggle ahead for Paul Holmes if the broadcaster is to recover his crown as the biggest little bloke on our screens.

After watching his ratings all but disappear into Nielsen Media Research's margin of error on Wednesday, Prime's highly trumpeted local offering recovered slightly on Thursday to pull in 75,580 viewers.

But 2 per cent of the potential viewing audience remains well below the pulling power Holmes was thought to hold over "our people".

What will please Prime is that Holmes is rating best among women aged 25 to 54, big targets for advertisers.

But Holmes' Australian employers must still have expected their highly paid presenter to at least need both hands to count his ratings.

Pundits are not writing the veteran off yet. His scrap with Susan Wood will change in April when TV3 tosses Campbell Live into the fray.