Being Erica Means Being on the Bubble

513,000. That was Being Erica’s teetering take for Tuesday’s second season finale. Will it be enough to bring her back through that green door for a third season?
Hard to imagine CBC abandoning Erica after all the hype and expectations. Just last January, when it launched, the series was the network darling, the big export, the show “everyone was talking about” before it even aired. Now the numbers are in after two seasons and Erica is going in the wrong direction. Season One’s 13 episodes averaged 580,000 viewers per week. Season Two–shortened to 12 episodes–drew CORRECTION: 566,000 on average, despite the fact most prime time shows in Canada got a big boost this fall thanks to the new Portable People Meter data.
Erica‘s no longer the new CBC darling with Battle of the Blades, Dragon’s Den, Heartland and the Rick Mercer Report all surging to record highs.
There will be other shows on the bubble by the time the full season ends, including Little Mosque on the Prairie, The Border and 22 Minutes. How The Republic of Doyle and 18 to Life perform this winter will also factor into Erica‘s fate. But the fact is the series has not performed up to expectations and, at an hour, is not an inexpensive show to make. Exporting it to SOAPnet and Holland isn’t going to keep it in production. It is also proving to be a soft lead-in to the newly revamped National News at 10, delivering just 484,000/383,000 this Tuesday night at 10/10:25 on CBC according to BBM Canada overnight estimates.
On the plus side, you have a small but loyal fan base, solid leads in Erin Karpluk and Michael Riley (top) and a great premise for a TV show. A half million a week is still better than Sophie.
Maybe if it was a half hour, and cost less…hmmm.
OTHER TUESDAY NIGHT NUMBERS: City jumped near the top with the finale of NBC’s The Biggest Loser (1,006,000). CTV coasted with a rerun of L&O SVU (1,304,000) and a fresh So You Think You Can Dance (708,000). Global’s NCIS double whammy slipped to 1,388,000 and 1,110,000 in repeats while a seen it before Good Wife managed 617,000. CBC evergreen Santa Claus is Coming to Town did a jolly 673,000 leading into Erica. A-channel’s top entry was the Bourne Indentity movie at 637,000.
MONDAY NUMBERS: CBC won the battle of the Christmas movies, with The Santa Clause (1,126,000) sleighing the horrible Jim Carrey flick The Grinch (844,000). CTV’s crime night saw diminished rerun returns on CSI Miami (1,875,000) and two L&O SVU‘s (1,099,000 and 718,000). A channel got full value from Two and a Half Men (1,008,000) while City scored with Monday comedies Accidentally on Purpose (732,000) and How I Met Your Mother (728,000).