New shows are continuing to pay off for CBC, which saw solid debuts for its comedies Sophie and jPod last week, while Little Mosque on the Prairie also experienced a slight upswing in ratings.

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.
‘I’m confident that jPod‘s audience will continue to grow with each episode, just as our online traffic has grown on YouTube, Facebook and all over the web,’ says the series XP, Larry Sugar, referring to jPod‘s impressive online presence.

Meanwhile, 710,000 tuned into the debut of the action drama The Border last Monday.

‘It’s a great start; we look forward to watching it grow,’ says CBC programming head Kirstine Layfield of jPod – pointing out that it attracted 293,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic.

A version of this story ran in Playback Daily.