RATINGS: Canada’s Top 30 week of Nov. 5 – 11

Two months into the 2018-19 TV season, where do things stand in Canada?

A look at the English Canada totals for the week of Nov. 5 -11, released Tuesday by Numeris, shows that positions are starting to lock in among the Canadian Top-30. This despite the fact that it was an unusual week, with the US mid-term elections disrupting schedules on both sides of the border.

The Top 5 in 2+, Live+7 totals were:

1. The Big Bang Theory (CTV, 3,449,000)
2. Young Sheldon (CTV, 2,716,000)
3. The Good Doctor (CTV, 2,559,000)
4. Survivor (Global, 2,043,000)
5. 9-1-1  (Global, 1,942,000)

If you’re looking for a Canadian-made, scripted series among the most-watched shows in Canada, you have to go all the way down to No. 24 to find it: Murdoch Mysteries (CBC, 1,094,000).

CTV’s strong lineup of 10 pm imports, as well as the US mid-term election reports, drove the private broadcaster’s national newscasts to dominance. CTV’s supper hour Evening News landed at 12th place nationally, averaging a 2+ total audience of 1,533,000 viewers Monday to Friday.  CTV’s 11 pm National News landed at No. 22 averaging 1,136,000 viewers over seven nights.  Right behind were the numbers for CTV’s local, weekend supper hour newscasts (1,106,000). Despite the frenzy Stateside, no other network newscasts made the Canadian Top 30.

Global had 11 shows, all imports, in the Top 30 and would have had more if not for the Tuesday night mid-terms. Those elections knocked Top 5 rookie contenders FBI and New Amsterdam as well as old reliable NCIS off North American schedules.

CBC snuck two shows onto the Top 30, the aforementioned Murdoch and — what is really a Rogers property as far as advertisers are concerned — Hockey Night in Canada‘s Saturday night early East game (No. 25 with 993,000 viewers).

TSN hit the Top 30 with Sunday coverage of the CFL Playoffs (No. 28 with 965,000 viewers). Curious that, amid all kinds of talk and evidence of an NFL ratings turn-around south of the border, the four-down American game is not even close to Canada’s Top 30. That same exciting tilt between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears drew just 363,000 in Canada on TSN.

Stateside, NFL broadcasts swept the Top 5 positions on the US Nov. 5 – 11 TV totals, with NBC’s Sunday Night Football game tackling 20.10 million viewers and Fox’s Thursday night game drawing 14.80M for second spot.

This past Monday, ESPN Stateside drew 16.6M viewers for the high-scoring thriller between the Kansas City Chiefs and the victorious Los Angeles Rams. The same game Monday drew 656,000 NFL fans in Canada on TSN.

W, with 864,000 viewers, was the only other Canadian network to crack the Top 30 with a Saturday night movie. Rogers owned City was shut out for the week as strong-starting rookie reboot Murphy Brown continues to slip.