Coyotes an Ontario Dream Team for CBC

How much do you wanna bet CBC would love to see a new pro hockey franchise in Southern Ontario? Jim Balssille`s move to drag the Phoenix Coyotes across the border has to be a CBC wet dream. An Ontario Coyotes-Leafs-Senators tilt would be an automatic three million a game draw, a lottery win for cash-strapped CBC.
Instead, hockey numbers continue to blow hot and cold this NHL playoff season with just the Canucks left in the hunt for Lord Stanley’s cup. Monday night’s Washington/Pittsburgh battle drew 1,228,000 on CBC with the Ovechkin/Cosby rivalry living up to the hype. Saturday night’s tilt between Vancouver and Chicago drew 1,879,000 on CBC, but a Friday night Round Two game fetched only 746,000 at 7 p.m.
TSN, meanwhile, drew 785,000 Sunday at 7:30 and 497,000 for a Friday game (all numbers BBM Canada overnight `commercial`estimates).
As for non-hockey numbers, Global`s House flirted with 2 million Monday (1,986,000) with 24 arresting another 1,183,000. CTV`s CSI: Miami (1,852,000), Two and a Half Men (1,487,000) and the CTV Evening News (1,111,000) had typically strong Monday nights. CTV did even better Sunday with winding down Amazing Race (1,986,000), Desperate Housewives (1,710,000) and The Mentalist (1,407,000–keep in mind that the CTV `Total`tally will be slightly higher for all their shows).
Friday saw Flashpoint grab another first place ratings finish with 1,365,000 viewers. Once again, there was a big drop off an hour later for Elvis Costello`s Spectacle, which clocked in at 591,000 commercial.
Dave Thomas`s new animated effort Bob & Doug failed to take off again Sunday night on Global (137,000), with moribund Degrassi not much better opposite on CTV (208,000). Global makes little effort to even keep the light on Saturday night, with back-to-back decade old reruns of Doc fetching 114,000 and 108,000 respectively. The acky-breaky doctor is out!