CBC

BBM / Nielsen is yet to issue the weekly report for the week of December 24-30. Regardless, taking into consideration the fact that CBC's mid-season premieres will probably not make it to the weekly top-ten television ratings chart, it is worth mentioning them today. In an attempt to bring new life to its screen, the public broadcaster introduced four new fictions to its prime-time schedule throughout this week. Fortunately for the Canadian television industry, all of them had a relatively successful beginning, as far as mass appeal is concerned. But, were they successful in terms of storytelling and originality? We watched them and the results are in.

The Border (Mondays, 9pm)

The WGA strike is, indeed, an inconvenience for the major television networks down South. Production of most major dramas has been halted as a result of the now two-month old dispute. Although, we can all agree that we would like to see this problem resolved and prevent the potential layoffs that could result from the strike, as Canadians we can also–perhaps somewhat naïvely–hope for Canadian networks to see this as an opportunity to develop homegrown dramas. To their defense, even if they wanted to take advantage of the situation, two months is admittedly too little time to create a drama and have it ready to air next week.

The Stanley Cup Finals proved once again to be an effective way of attracting Canadian viewers to CBC National's screen. With a massive 2.5-million audience record, CBC National's airing of the final two games leads last week's top 10 chart. Coming second, behind the Stanley Cup Finals by more than 1 million viewers, is CTV's regular summer hit Canadian Idol and its auditions. So You Think You Can Dance is, as always, giving CTV good results, but their most advertised new reality show Pirate Master is still far from the top 10, barely surpassing the 850,000 viewers.

CTV leads again last week's top-10 TV ratings chart. Global National holds the first position with its airing of House, while CBC National achieved a remarkably close second place with the Stanley Cup Finals, aired Monday, Wednesday and Saturday starting at 8pm. CTV's most watched program was its evening newscast at 6, which fell bellow this week's first by almost 1.5 million viewers and got the third position. New reality show Pirate Master (CTV, Thursday 8pm) is getting good results, and On the Lot is once again, nowhere to be found in the top-10 chart.