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| Mercer and James: jumping up |
PASADENA, CA–If you’re looking here for the usual weekly Canadian ratings numbers, the TCA press tour has kinda knocked that off my plate this week. Starting at 8 a.m. today, bleary-eyed critics were led on and off a large shuttle bus weaving through traffic from Pasadena to Burbank and the Warner Bros. sound stages of George Lopez and Conan O’Brien. Next came a trip to the Fox lot for panels featuring the “men and women of comedy” (stars from Fox Studio shows like Glee, How I Met Your Mother, Raising Hope and Modern Family) and then down to Culver City to the set of Cougar Town. And that’s just up to lunch.
A quick look at the Monday and Tuesday numbers in Canada, however, does not offer encouraging news for CBC. All their new shows were down in Week Two, some sharply down–despite no longer having to contend with the World Junior Hockey Tournament. What’s up with that?
Monday to Monday, Little Mosque went from 593,000 viewers to 477,000 according to overnight estimates. 18 to Life slipped from 436,000 to 386,000. Village on a Diet shrunk from 514,000 to 376,000.
The Tuesday to Tuesday CBC tally followed the same trend. The new spy comedy InSecurity lost close to 200,000 viewers in Week Two, dropping from 724,000 to 526,000. The epic miniseries Pillars of the Earth had a similar slide, from 951,000 viewers on opening week to 762,000.
Curiously, the old reliable Rick Mercer Report soared to its highest audience of the season, with over 1.3 million viewers as opposed to last week’s 1,167,000.
It could be that CBC’s on-air initiative to LIVE RIGHT NOW has already had an impact. CBC is encouraging Canadians to get fit and active by exercising instead of vegging in front of the TV set. By this rate, Canada will have the fittest nation on earth–with the lowest public broadcaster viewing levels
Meanwhile, CTV’s Canadian cop drama Flashpoint continues to arrest viewers Tuesday night, drawing 1,489,000 in it’s second week of mid-season.
