Slight drop in CTV National News numbers week of August 15-21

The first full week of national network ratings are in following the firing of Lisa LaFlamme and they show a marginal drop in audience number estimates for the CTV National News.

The network’s flagship 11 p.m. newscast drew an average of 879,000 viewers Monday through Sunday nights. That earned a 10th place finish the week of August 15-21 according to Numeris Live+7 estimates.

A nightly breakdown was not provided, but it is possible — with LaFlamme’s ouster a big story — that more viewers tuned in the Monday and Tuesday of that week just to see how CTV would cover their own predicament. In the Toronto-Hamilton market for that same week, the CTV National News ranked as the fifth most-watched show over the seven night estimate.

The week before, Aug. 8-14, the CTV National News averaged 927,000 viewers coast-to-coast. The Aug. 1-7 Numeris report showed that an average cross country audience of 886,000 tuned in.

The data company — owned by a consortium of Canadian broadcasters, including CTV — announced a few weeks ago that they plan to stop publicly sharing ratings results. That decision takes effect in one more week.

It may take several weeks to see if the outrage on social media over the perceived mis-handling of LaFlamme’s departure has any lasting impact on the national news viewership. Nightly national newscast ratings would be expected to jump, traditionally, after Labor Day when kids are back to school and household routines return back to normal.

With the last public Numeris Top-30 weekly ratings ending with the week of August 21-28, Canadians will not likely find out if CTV sees a bump or takes a hit when newly appointed chief anchor Omar Sachedina takes the big chair Sept. 6.

Here is how the Top-10 shows across Canada fared in terms of average minute audience and total viewers age 2+ the week of August 15 to 21:

1 The Amazing Race Canada (CTV) Tues 1,747,000
2 CTV Evening News (CTV) MTWTF 1,136,000
3 America’s Got Talent (Citytv) Tues 1,109,000
4 Big Brother (Global) Wed 1,065,000
5 Departure (Global) Wed 989,000
6 Big Brother (Global) 983,000
7 Big Brother (Global) Thurs 949,000
8 Masterchef (CTV) Wed 896,000
9 Baseball: Blue Jays (Sportsnet National) MTWT.SS 895,000
10 CTV National News (CTV) MTWTFSS 879,000

Other number of note that week: The World Junior Hockey Championships — postponed to a summer run after a COVID delay last winter — was 12th overall for the week. The games drew an estimated average of 849,000 TSN viewers on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. A new revival of the classic TV gamer Password, produced by Jimmy Fallon, opened to 766,000 CTV viewers on a Tuesday night for a 14th place finish. CBC placed two shows on the Top 30 nationally: The Great British Baking Show (No. 26 with 465,000 viewers) and long-running Brit soap Coronation Street, No. 27 with 464,000 loyal followers.