It was a good, though not a stellar, start for CTV’s cop drama The Bridge.

The homegrown series – which was aggressively promoted during the Winter Olympics – averaged one million viewers for its two-hour debut, Friday at 9 p.m. according to overnight data. The numbers might get a slight bump when final ratings become available. (All numbers 2+).

Bridge fell slightly short of the premiere of fellow Toronto-set cop series Flashpoint, which debuted to 1.1 million viewers back in the summer of 2008 without the benefit of BBM’s new Personal People Meters or heavy promotion during the Olympics. (Flashpoint grew to average 1.7 million viewers for CTV last fall.)

In addition, the comedies Dan for Mayor and Hiccups delivered nearly double the audience (1.9 million for each) for their first outings last week on CTV, though both premiered in the friendlier Monday 8-9 p.m. slot and featured familiar faces from hit sitcom Corner Gas.

Bridge, which stars Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica) as the outspoken head of a police union, did win the night over Global’s Shark Tank and Numbers, with 536,000 and 788,000 viewers respectively. CTV says nearly 3.5 million Canadians tuned into some part of the premiere.

From Playback Daily