Ratings results from Night Three of Fall Launch Week:
CTV had the biggest draw of the night with the stronger-in-Canada forensic cop drama Criminal Minds. The CBS series, starring Thomas Gibson (left), drew an overnight, estimated 2,639,000 viewers. That was followed at 10 p.m. by the debut of the new Jim Belushi Vegas romp The Defenders, which rolled surprisingly close to the 2 million mark. Still, CTV isn’t betting on the CBS series, banishing it to Saturday starting next week, when they’ll slide Law & Order: Los Angeles into the Wednesday at 10 slot. So You Think You Can Dance Canada waltzed off with 1,113,000 viewers for its performance show. The CTV National News soared to more than 1.3 million estimated Lloyd fans at 11.
Global had the No. 2 show on the night, the can’t-kill-it-with-a-Tiki-torch Survivor: Nicaragua, which did close to 2.5 mil. A rerun of NCIS fell to 928,000, giving no lift to new Canadian drama Shattered, which settled for the BBM (Below Brampton Mark) of 423,000. Dawna Friesen’s nightly news address to Earthlings pulled a steady 1.1 million at 5:30.
CBC was competitive Wednesday thanks to the return of Dragon’s Den, which pulled close to 1.6 million. The final season debut of The Tudors did close to a million. The gun registry vote shot the CBC National News to a robust 739,000 at 10 p.m. The renamed George Stroumboulopoulos Happy Funtime Goodtime Hour did 181,000 at 11.That Emmy win helped the season premiere of Modern Family (featuring Emmy-winner Eric Stonestreet, right) to a million-plus night on Citytv. The Rogers-owned City stations also scored a hefty 836,000 for Jennifer Aniston’s guest star turn on Cougar Town at 9:30. Undercovers opened to 608,000 on the City stations. The verdict for The Whole Truth was not as promising, with the Maura Tierney law drama opening to 331,000 Citytv viewers.
Leafs are back and making a dent in pre-season, with 611,000 checking out the buds Wednesday night on TSN.
