Bankable reality Dragons’ Den finished its fifth season on a strong note for CBC last week, hitting nearly two million viewers with its ‘The Road to Riches’ finale.

The special episode, which recounted how Dragons including Kevin O’Leary, Brett Wilson and Arlene Dickinson became successful, won its time slot and peaked at 2.5 million viewers on Wednesday at 8 p.m. (All numbers 2+.)

It aired opposite Bones on Global and a re-run of Criminal Minds on CTV.

The cross-Canada audition tour is already underway for the sixth season of Dragons, which averaged 1.7 million viewers per episode – on par with season four’s performance last fall.

Dragons lifted the ratings for Republic of Doyle, which delivered 906,000 viewers at 9 p.m., roughly 100,000 viewers more than its season-to-date average, despite airing opposite the results show of CTV juggernaut American Idol, with 2.4 million viewers. The singing competition’s two-hour performance episode averaged a slightly higher 2.6 million viewers on Tuesday.

Doyle‘s season ender is set for April 7.

From Playback Daily