Want to get a snapshot of media today hot off the critics’ press tour? The Broadcast Research Council of Canada has asked me to speak Thursday at their mid-season TV review. I’ll be sharing stories of all the Conan O’Brien/Jay Leno/NBC intrigue which dominated the 10 day press tour, which concluded Monday with Hollywood set visits to How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, The Middle and Glee. There was plenty of insight from U.S. programming executives, writers, producers and even the stars during the tour on everything from PVR penetration, the push for carriage fees and just how much Fox is likely to miss Simon Cowell on American Idol. I’ll also break down the fall/winter ratings with particular focus on the steroids of the sample business, Portable People Meters. The event takes place Thursday at 11:30 a.m. in the Tom Thomson room of the downtown Toronto Hilton. Tickets to the luncheon are available through Taylor Kormann at [email protected].
Speaking of PPM numbers, some overnight estimates from Monday, including a leveling off of CBC comedies 18 to Life 555,000 and Little Mosque 516,000.
CTV had a massive Monday with new action hour Human Target at 8 (1,358,000) followed by two comedies they should have moved over from A ages ago, Two and a Half Men (2,029,000) and the Big Bang Theory (2,105,000), then CSI Miami at 10 (1,990,000).
The second episode of 24‘s eighth season continued strong on Global with 1,334,000.

3 Comments

  1. I see where John Doyle reads your blog, and why wouldn’t he.
    But something isn’t clear to me.
    When you say for example that Little Mosque gets a million viewers, is that the total audience across Canada?
    When you say The Hour gets 120,000, is that a national audience or just local?

  2. Any numbers quoted here are national, Allan, unless specified. The Hour typically gets around 120,000 nationally, for example. Little Mosque should wish for a million.

  3. Thank you, Bill.
    I don’t want to press my luck here, but since you seem in a generous mood to answer a question.
    What I’m interested to know more specifically is about a number quoted by you in an earlier post and then picked up and repeated by John Doyle in The Globe

    Jan. 13
    You said:
    “In local late night ratings, in the Toronto area at least, Conan O’Brien did not get much of a spike despite all that publicity. Here’s how they stacked up at 11:35: The Hour (CBLT, 48,000). Conan (CKVR, 24,000) and Letterman (OMNI1, 18,000).”

    Jan. 18
    John Doyle writes:
    “Last Tuesday, as the Conan O’Brien/Jay Leno story was really sizzling, O’Brien’s Tonight Show had 24,000 viewers in Toronto and the Late Show with David Letterman had 18,000. At the same time, George Stroumboulopoulos’s The Hour , on the local CBC, had 48,000 viewers. That’s correct –Strombo had double O’Brien’s audience. That’s what you call a reality check. Well done, George. CBC needs to buy some ads, market those numbers.”

    That’s an intriguing comparison.
    What I’d be interested to know is, if the Hour averages 120,000 viewers at 11 PM, is it able to sustain that audience for the full hour?
    What is the drop between 11 PM and 11:30 PM?

    If you should ever have a moment to notice, I’d appreciate knowing the answer.
    But you sure have your hands full.
    Wish I could make it to your speaking engagement.lendi

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