Holiday movies sleigh regular Top 30 fare Nov. 23 – 29

U.S. Thanksgiving generally triggers a rush of holiday programming the last week of November. Viewers were clearly ready for it after a not-so-festive year. Even in Canada, Christmas movies in November rose near the top of the TV ratings.

Not the very top. The Good Doctor was back in the No. 1 position on the Numeris weekly chart, drawing 2,272,000 CTV viewers in English Canada. Old reliable NCIS landed in second spot with 2,089,000 watching on Global.

The rest of the Top 10 were also fairly predictable. There were three newscasts on that list, including the CTV Evening News at No. 3 with 1,769,000. Global’s import drama FBI arrested 1,732,000 for fourth spot. The Masked Singer distracted 1,705,000 for fifth on CTV.

Christmas came early, however, for the W Network. They saw three Hallmark movies land in the middle of the Top 30. On Saturday, Nov. 28, “Christmas Waltz,” starring Hallmark queen Lacey Chabert, captured 13th place with 1,068,000 W viewers and “A Nashville Christmas Carol,” featuring Jesse Schram, landed at No. 21 with 919,000 in Canada. W Net’s Sunday night movie that week, “HSS Christmas” with Jen Lilley and Trevor Donavan, took 15th spot with 1,037,000 viewers across Canada.

According to Numeris, here’s how the entire Top 10 did the week of Nov. 22 – 29 among viewers 2+ (average minute audience):

1. The Good Doctor (CTV) Mon 2,272,000
2. NCIS (Global) Tues 2,089,000
3. CTV Evening News (CTV) MTWTF 1,769,000
4. FBI (Global) Tues 1,732,000
5. The Masked Singer (CTV) Wed 1,705,000
6. The Amazing Race (CTV) Wed 1,567,000
7. FBI: Most Wanted (Global) Tues 1,513,000
8. CTV Evening News Weekend (CTV) Sat 1,317,000
9. Bull (Global) Mon 1,191,000
10. CTV National News (CTV) MTWTFSS 1,175,000

A look ahead at more recent overnights suggest the happy holiday movie ratings will continue in Canada. This past Saturday, Dec. 5, in the US on one of Hallmark’s cable channels, the feature “Time for Us to Come Home for Christmas” became the year’s most-watched original movie premiere of 2020 to date in America among households, pulling over 2.6 million US viewers.

The movie, directed by Canadian David Winning and executive produced by Blake Sheldon (the “Time to Come Home” movies are based on one of his hit songs), is scheduled to premiere in Canada on the W Network this Saturday, Dec. 12. It stars Hallmark favourite Lacey Chabert; look also for Letterkenny‘s Stephen Huszar.

Also of note the week of Nov. 23 – 29: two Sunday afternoon NFL games carried by a combo of Bell channels — including main net CTV — made the Top 30: the NFL Late game (No. 17 with 992,000 viewers) and the Early game (No. 27; 842,000).

Once again, the top Canadian scripted original for the week was Global’s Private Eyes, in at No. 16 with 1,030,000 viewers. In specialty, History’s Curse of Oak Island came in at No. 22 with 918,000 viewers.

No shows from CBC, Citytv or Sportsnet cracked the Top 30 this final week of November.