Just shy of two million Canadians watched Tie Domi and Bob Probert duke it out on Battle of the Blades Sunday night according to BBM Canada overnight estimates.
Those 1,959,000 CBC viewers tops even the 1.8 mil I predicted, a great start for the hockey-meets-figure-skating competition. The follow up results show and skate off between the bottom two pairs of skaters airs tonight at 8.
Next Sunday, Don Cherry is guest judge, but he’ll be up against some stiff competition—Thanksgiving dinners. That holiday is usually a TV-free zone in many Canadian households so it will be interesting to see if Grapes can pull those Personal People Meter families away from the dining room to gather for a second helping of hockey and figure skating.
The PPM families also seem to love their horsey dramas. Heartland returned for a third season with 1,065,000 viewers, a series high. The new PPM data seems to show that programming aimed at children may have been under-represented under the old People Meter systems.
CBC had more to cheer about Saturday as 1,740,000 tuned in to see the Leafs lose on the first game on Hockey Night in Canada, with another 1,153,000 sticking around for the west coast contest.
Sunday was another typically strong night for CTV. Amazing Race won the 8 p.m. hour in Canada, besting Blades with 2,669,000 viewers. Desperate Housewives pulled 2,088,000 at 9, with another one-and-a-half million and change lasting through Cold Case at 10.
Sandwiched between the local CTV supper hour news (1,205,000) and Amazing Race, Degrassi held onto 471,000 viewers, a small tally on a big night but up at least from the dismal numbers late last season.
Global had a typically solid Sunday with its lineup of Fox animated sitcoms, with The Simpsons (1,116,000), The Cleveland Show (1,003,000), Family Guy (1,146,000) and American Dad (746,000) connecting with young urban viewers. Brothers & Sisters did a respectable 882,000 at 10.
Also of note numbers-wise on the weekend, the second episode of The Ron James Show drew 709,000 Friday (and another 666,000 in a Sunday repeat). Flashpoint scored 1,575,000 commercial on Friday, besting both CTV imported lead ins, Ghost Whisperer (1,513,000) and Medium (1,395,000).
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