Canucks Exit Bad Break For CBC

As the Canucks go, so go CBC’s fortunes this spring in the NHL playoffs. So now what?
Vancouver got bounced by Chicago in Monday night’s sixth game of the second round, leaving no Canadian team in the last two rounds of the playoffs.
Saturday night’s exciting game, which the Canucks lost 4-2 to the Black Hawks, drew 1,732,000 despite a 10:30 start. The 7 p.m. CBC game drew 1,370,000, about what you’d expect during the regular season on Hockey Night in Canada.
The NHL playoffs have been a very quiet draw so far this spring. Just four games cracked the Canadian Top-30 the week of April 27-May 3, and two of them were on TSN.
A non-Canucks game Friday drew just 914,000 CBC viewers. A Boston/Carolina tilt the same night on TSN drew 574,000.
TSN did better Sunday with Anaheim at Detroit (622,000) and Carolina at Boston (772,000).
Without hockey, CBC has been doing even worse. CBC killed time with a rerun of that Shania biopic Sunday, and drew only 287,000 viewers. As Shania might have sung, up, up, up, ratings can only go up from there.
The private networks, meanwhile, are scoring big numbers with all their imported series finales. The Amazing Race signed off with 2,165,000 Sunday on CTV according to BBM Canada’s overnight estimates (the “commercial” tally; the CTV total will be slightly higher). Desperate Housewives drew 1,712,000 Sunday on CTV. The Mentalist did 1,235,000.
Other recent numbers: Friday’s Spectacle: Elvis Costello With… drew 660,000 “commercial.” Flashpoint did 1,149,000. Sunday’s Bob & Doug on Global counted just 174,000 hoseheads, still better than CTV’s dying Degrassi (163,000). Good thing Global also has another week of The Simpsons (946,000) and Family Guy (!,086,000).