Hull of a Weekend for Canadian TV Shows

Another big weekend in Canadian TV. The top scorers: Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada hit 1,964,000–wasn’t 1964 one of the last years the Leafs actually won the Stanley Cup? Start organizing the parade. Leafs won their third of the season, beating traditional Six Team rival Detroit Red Wings in the annual Hall of Fame game. That’s Monday Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Brett Hull, above, with fellow ‘famer Wayne Gretzky and an unidentified hockey player circa 1991. Must have been the dough-nut line, they have nothing at centre…
Other big scores from the weekend: Friday’s Flashpoint picked off 1,816,000 “commercial” on CTV (all figures BBM Canada overnight estimates). CBC’s Battle of the Blades was right behind Sunday night with 1,810,000 tuning in to see the final three skate off.
Then, lookit this–CBC’s pony drama Heartland quietly rode off with 1,282,000 Sunday evening. Giddyup! TSN went long with Sunday’s CFL tilt, with 1,051,000 tuning in for the final Calgary at Sask game. Overall, TSN had a great CFL football season, averaging 600,000 viewers a game, a 51% increase over last season. Seems those Portable People Meter wearers are big Canadian football fans.
A couple of newscasts, as usual, cracked the million mark on the weekend, including Friday’s CTV Evening supper hour newser with 1,584,000 and Global National Friday at 5:30 with 1,016,000. Also on Friday, Ron James scored his biggest CBC audience of the season, with 811,000 viewers.
Top show overall for the weekend was CTV’s Amazing Race, with 2,763,000 watching Sunday. Another 2,205,000 stuck around for Desperate Housewives. Global had a big night with that Family Guy special, drawing 1,242,000. Even Brothers & Sisters did better than usual, close to a million.
You sci-fi fans have to know: Stargate Universe did 313,000 Friday night, with Sanctuary pulling in 162,000 the same night.