In the news: CBC Ratings

From Marise Strauss of Media in Canada about last week’s ratings:

  • Sophie, jPod do well for CBC
    “Sophie, the English-language version of a hit Quebec sitcom, premiered to a sound 630,000 viewers on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., following the mid-season debut of Mosque. The antics of the residents of Mercy, Saskatchewan drew 804,000 viewers, up from the second season debut of 750,000. (All times Eastern, all ratings 2+ unless noted.) Total viewership of jPod (pictured) trailed with 472,000 on Tuesday at 9 pm, the time slot formerly held by The Tudors. However, among viewers 24-54, the new one-hour series based on Douglas Coupland’s bestselling novel exceeded CBC’s highest rating ever for this demo. Of the 472,000 viewers who tuned in to the offbeat comedy on its Tuesday night debut, 62% (293,000) were in the highly-desired 25-54 group.” Read more.

From Denis McGrath at Dead Things on Sticks, about this week’s ratings:

  • CBC Hangs On
    “Little Mosque did 910 000. Sophie, at 8:30, did 625 000.” Read more.
  • Not a Lot of Pod People
    “As it ran smack into the juggernaut that was the return of American Idol, the numbers tumbled from a 472 000 start to 250 000 for Episode 2.” Read more.
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6 thoughts on “In the news: CBC Ratings”

  1. I wish we’d get official ratings for MVP. There was that figure published in the Globe and Mail but it wasn’t an offical number or so I heard.

  2. When will the TV industry realize that the average TV viewer doesn’t give a damn about the ratings for their favorite show? I didn’t sit down to watch Blue Murder thinking, “OhmiGod I sure hope there’s 999,999 other Canadians watching this with me…”

  3. Well, the point is that if not enough other Canadians are watching your favourite show, it will be cancelled. A lot of average TV viewers do care about that. If you don’t care, don’t read about ratings.

  4. Very true. Actually, funny thing about Blue Murder. I can’t say I was ever much of a fan of that show, but it’s been pointed out to me several times by people looking at the ratings that that show, which now runs in strip syndication at odd times on Showcase — and is on about its tenth play through, regularly pulls down viewer numbers with no promotion that outstrip by far the numbers for some recent shows on CBC that are huge critical darlings (and get talked about a lot on, say, this site for instance.)

    The lesson I take from that: Canadians really like procedural shows.

    You don’t have to care, but don’t say the ratings aren’t useful. They sure are.

  5. There are no Neilson boxes in Vancouver – zero. Boxes are only given to home owners and not renters. How many people do you know who has a box? Networks use the numbers to talk up, or talk down, their projects. “Intelligence” was doomed from the start, & the CBC will use the ‘low’ figures to justify their cancellation of a series which is a) an undisputed critical success b) sold in 143 countries & c) the third highest downloaded series in North America.

  6. I am a constant viewer for Da Vinci’s Inquest, Da Vinci’s City Hall and Intelligence. All 3 of these shows were my favourites. I was very unhappy when they were all cancelled! I have been watching Da Vinci’s Inquest since the original episode was aired. I just loved the Intelligence series and could not wait for the next episode. These programs were the only programs that I watched on CBC, but that made me watch CBC because I enjoyed these programs so much. I will not be watching CBC anymore, unless of course they bring back my favourites.

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