Aside from CTV’s golden sweep with the 81st Academy Awards on Sunday at 8:30 pm, which surpassed both the Super Bowl and the World Junior Hockey Championship with a now-famous 4.5 million viewers (making it the most-watched program of the year), the weekend was also hot on the ratings front for CBC, which scored an average 1.8 million viewers for the much-hyped Toronto Maple Leafs/Vancouver Canucks game at 7 pm. The game was Mats Sundin’s first in Toronto since he joined the Canucks in December.

Global, for its part, drew 800,000 viewers for Barbara Walters’ pre-Oscar special at 7 pm, up against stiff competition from CTV’s The Amazing Race, which aired out-of-simulcast to 1.4 million viewers. The numbers for the special are down from last year, when it aired to 1.8 million viewers on CTV. A Global spokesperson says the drop can be attributed to simulcast problems the broadcaster had in Western Canada.

It was the Ceeb’s highest audience for a regular season game since 2006/07, and the most-watched game of the season thus far. The game was the second in a triple-header as part of CBC’s annual Hockey Day in Canada event. The Ottawa/Montreal bout drew 620,000 viewers at 3 pm, while Calgary/Edmonton nabbed 712,000 viewers at 10 pm.

From Playback Daily