CBC’s new drama Republic of Doyle premiered to an overnight estimated 969,000 Wednesday night, a strong start for the Newfoundland-based detective series.
It had some help getting there. It’s lead in, Dragon’s Den, started the new year off with its second-biggest audience ever, 1,959,000, with 904,000 of those in the 25-54-year old range.
CBC’s Wednesday night started strong with 1,112,000 catching Jeopardy! at 7:30. Daytime newcomers Steven And Chris and Best Recipes Ever scored 90,000 and 79,000 respectively. The Hour drew 121,000.
Doyle had some competition at 9, going up against The People’s Choice Awards on Global, which pulled 1,953,000. Other potential Republicans were probably still watching the Leafs/Philly game on TSN, which scored 840,000 starting at 7 p.m.
CTV kept costs down with a rerun of Ocean’s Thirteen, which paid 843,000. City found 495,000 watching Modern Family, with Cougar Town (featuring Courteney Cox’s old Friends friend Lisa Kudrow) roaring to 617,000 at 10.
CTV’s Evening News continues to sizzle, with 1,790,000 tuning in a 6 p.m. The National news race played out as usual, with CTV and Global neck and neck at 11 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. with 1,268,000 and 1,253,000 and CBC getting little lift from a strong prime time lineup with 659,000 and 572,000 in the 10/10:25 timeslots.
TUESDAY NIGHT NUMBERS: TSN’s amazing Junior Hockey Final tally of 5,285,000 (2,482,000 in the 25-54 demo) is all the more amazing considering the strong night Global had opposite it. NCIS did 2,215,000, NCIS Los Angeles 1,582,000 and The Good Wife delivered 1,133,000. CTV, coasting until the Olympics, sat out another night with a watched-out movie, Blades of Glory, which drew 503,000. That CTV Evening News, however, is unstoppable at 1,802,000.
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Bill, why is it that in this age of ‘save local TV’, the World Juniors (from Saskatchewan featuring a buncha good Canadian boys, dontcha know) and the CFL (including the Grey Cup itself) are relegated to TSN while the NFL will fill CTV’s airwaves all of this weekend?
Does it matter? Five times as many people will have watched TSN’s junior hockey coverage that will watch NFL football on CTV. The NFL might even do better on TSN, where sports numbers are soaring. CTV is likely locked into running NFL playoffs on the main network as terms of their deal wit the league, I’m guessing.
No, it doesn’t much matter in terms of ratings, I just find it interesting that they have two Canadian TV properties that are proven draws (the WJHC and the CFL playoffs), and they put them on TSN, while the big American product gets the main network.
In the midst of a campaign the broadcasters are running about how we need to save local TV, it says something.
Here’s my guess.
Part of it is that TSN is not a wholly owned subsidiary of CTV, so switching content between the 2 networks isn’t a cut and dry issue.
Part of it is that the NFL is also on American broadcasters, so if it was put on TSN, the sim-sub rights are lost and some of the viewing audience is lost to competitors and the ad revenue is diminished.
And another part is that by keeping CTV open, they can show programming that caters to the non-sports viewer but if TSN lost the World Juniors what would they show instead? Probably more poker. For example, CTV still drew 2.4 million for the Amazing Race opposite the Grey Cup. That audience is lost to CBS if the game is moved.
Yeah, I had a feeling about some of those issues you’re mentioning, Matt, but I still think it looks pretty rotten on them.