It’s been a little more than a month since the fall TV season took off in full swing and speaking with media experts, MIC thought it’d be a good time to determine which Canadian net is winning the all-important Thursday night race.
Breaking down the skeds hour by hour on Thursday night, it’s clear that both CTV and Global are running neck and neck, and way ahead of the pack.
Starting at 7:30 p.m., there’s Joey on Global against CTV’s Jeopardy – and although it may be stating the obvious – Joey comes out the winner ‘even thought the show isn’t close to delivering the audience numbers that Friends did,’ says Theresa Treutler, corporate media director for Doner Canada. ‘Its lost somewhere in the neighbourhood of half its initial audience since it premiered but regardless, it still outperforms Jeopardy in the 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 demos.’
Global scores another ratings coup with the strong showing of Survivor: Vanuatu in the 8 p.m. time slot, which above all others is currently the number one show across Canada, says Dennis Dinga, vp and director of broadcast buying for M2 Universal. And regardless of the popular soap The O.C. coming to CTV later this season to replace Charmed, Treutler says ‘although The O.C. will draw more audience than Charmed, it still won’t get the numbers Survivor does.’
CSI (CTV) goes up against Trump’s Apprentice (Global) at 9 p.m. and depending on the demographic, the numbers are close – but CTV comes out on top. It’s in the 18-34 demo that The Apprentice actually surpasses CSI but the story changes as soon as you get outside that demo and get into 18-49 and 25-54, says Treutler.
At 10 p.m. CTV is the clear winner of the late time slot with its long-running ER taking the total share (22.2%) while Global’s Without a Trace comes in with a decidedly lower share at 15.8%.
Media experts are split with Treutler calling CTV the marginal winner of Thursday night while Dinga gives the edge to Global. However, what they do agree upon is it could be anyone’s game depending on what Global has lined up to replace their strong properties (Survivor and Apprentice) when they finish their run.
