Move to Wednesdays Should Boost Erica

CBC is yanking Being Erica out of Monday nights, and not a moment too soon. The five-week-old fantasy/drama drew a respectable 644,000 Monday at 9, with 285,000 of those viewers being in the 25-54-year-old demo. That’s up against some stiff competition, including Two and a Half Men on CTV (1,800,000/1,078,000) and 24 on Global (1,259,000/634,000). City-TV’s The Bachelor, which is rebounding this season in the States, is also in that mix.
Last night’s episode–let’s call it Boring Erica–isn’t likely to win the series any new fans. Erica fled her best friend’s baby shower to hit a karaoke bar to then flash back to her Bat mitzvah–oy vey! Please, somebody, trim this sucker down to 30 minutes. And couldn’t they find a kid actor who at least had a passing resemblance to star Erin Karpluk (above with Tyron Leitso)?
At least Erica will have a stronger lead in when it slides over to Wednesdays behind The Week The Women Went, which drew over a million viewers last week. Being Erica’s Monday night lead in–Sophie–is getting hammered at 8:30. Down to 193,000 viewers last night–just 53,000 in the demo–it got stomped by the 100th episode of House, which drew 2,678,000 across Canada, an estimated 1,417,000 in the 25-54 demo. Even Little Mosque felt the House heat, down to 435,000/169,000. That drops the show under the “more people live in Brampton” threshold, although, granted, Brampton is exploding.
CTV’s Big Bang Theory (846,000/518,000) and newly simulcast sitcom Gary Unmarried (505,000/261,000) did okay but not great against Dr. House. CTV’s big gain came at 10, with CSI: Miami pulling in 1,764,000/868,000. Heroes continues to slide in Canada as it has in the States, with 572,000/372,000 catching the show at its later 10 p.m. slot on Global.
Also last night, for the first time ever, departing comedy Corner Gas drew just under a million viewers (993,000) for a new episode (although, keep in mind these are BBM/NMR overnight estimates. I’m won’t be shocked if another seven thousand viewers turn up in the final audit to keep the streak alive). Surprising, given the high HUT levels this time of year and all the Super Bowl promotion for this and other CTV shows just one day earlier.
You have to wonder–has the fact that CTV announced that this would be the final season so long ago hurt the show’s numbers this year?