Little Mosque nets 2.1 million viewers

The CBC's massive efforts to promote Tuesday's premiere of the homegrown comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie have paid off. The pubcaster reports that more than two million viewers tuned in - even if, for some, it was only to see what all the hype was about.
By Jesse Kohl
January 11, 2007

CBC’s premiere of Little Mosque on the Prairie drew in 2.1 million sets of eyeballs when it hit the air on Tuesday Jan. 9 at 8:30 pm. The audience for the new comedy doubled that of The Rick Mercer Report, which served as a lead-in to the series premiere. The show eased into its regular Wednesday night 8 pm time slot on Jan. 10.

CBC director of customer marketing Jamie Michaels tells MiC that while ads did run during the Tuesday airing, the show has yet to pick up any major sponsors. ‘A lot of people were kind of just waiting to see how it would do,’ he says. The CBC has openings for advertisers interested in hooking up with the show’s remaining seven episodes.

CBC teamed up with Toronto-based Zig about a month ago to develop a teaser campaign which rolled out into a full promotional campaign throughout the holiday season, tied in many cases to The Rick Mercer Report. For details on the teaser campaign and media interest generated for the show during the holiday season, see the Dec. 12, 2006 issue of MiC (or click here).