Audiences for Tuesday’s season six premiere of American Idol on CTV grew throughout the two-hour broadcast (8-10 pm), peaking at 3.6 million viewers in its last half-hour. The final average audience was 3.04 million, the biggest audience ever for an American Idol season premiere in Canada. All key demos saw increases, including 3% for adults 18-34, 7% for adults 18-49, and 6% for adults 25-54. The record-breaking night began at 7 pm with eTalk‘s round-up of Monday’s Golden Globe Awards festivities. About 613,000 viewers watched eTalk instead of Global’s ET Canada, which drew in 510,000.

CTV’s Golden Globe Awards also broke records, drawing in 2.6 million viewers on Monday night, an increase of 17% over the 2006 awards. In the 8-10 pm time slot, The Golden Globe Awards beat out Global’s season two premiere of 24, which attracted 1.48 million viewers. The Golden Globe Awards was used as a strategic platform for CTV’s announcement of Nelly Furtado’s upcoming duties as host of the 2007 JUNO Awards.

South of the border, the American Idol season premiere drew in a whopping 37.1 million viewers (with a peak at 41.4 million during the last half-hour), breaking records for FOX and jumping 4% from last year.