Fall Season Update: CTV Claims Canada's Top 5 Programs, Each With Three Million-Plus Audiences

CTV's CRIMINAL MINDS and CASTLE Return as Top 3 Programs in Week Two

– For the first time in a decade, Canada's Top 5 programs all have three million-plus viewers –
– CTV claims the Top 2 new series of the 2014/2015 TV season thus far with GOTHAM and HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER –
– Playback + 7 data sees THE FLASH series premiere on track to become the third new series of the season to debut with more than three million viewers –

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TORONTO, Oct. 16, 2014 /CNW/ - Canada has not seen this many hit programs kick-off a fall television season in a decade, and CTV is leading the way. Two weeks into the 2014/2015 TV season, new final data from Numeris (BBM Canada) confirms that CTV delivers the Top 5 most-watched programs with total viewers and all key adult demos – and all five of them have three million-plus viewers. It's the first time this many programs drew three million- plus audiences in the first two weeks of fall since 2004.

With THE BIG BANG THEORY (#1) leading the way once again, overall CTV has more Top 10 and Top 20 programs than all other networks combined in total viewers and A18-49 and A25-54, including GOTHAM and HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER, now both instant Top 10 hits, and the Top 2 most-watched new programs of the season in Canada. In Week Two of the fall TV season both series held the majority of their massive debut audiences, retaining 90% and 93% of viewers respectively with A25-54. Also, with preliminary Playback + 7 data now in, last Tuesday's (Oct. 7) series premiere of THE FLASH grew to 3.1 million viewers (from 2.3 million), putting it on track to become the third new series of the season to debut with more than three million viewers.

Also in Week Two of the fall TV season, new seasons of perennial hit favourites CRIMINAL MINDS and CASTLE returned strong on CTV, with both programs vaulting into the Top 3 most-watched programs of the week, behind only THE BIG BANG THEORY (#1). CRIMINAL MINDS (#2) bolstered CTV's Wednesday night lineup with 3.2 million viewers tuning into the Season 10 premiere, while CASTLE (#3) returned for its seventh season with a series-high 3.1 million viewers.   

Additional highlights from Week Two include impressive week-over-week lifts for SAVING HOPE (+23%) – which has become the first Canadian original series to win the prime Thursday's at 9 p.m. timeslot in the fall season – as well as BLUE BLOODS (+10%), and THE AMAZING RACE (+7%).

Canada's Most-Watched Programs, Total Viewers, Season-to-Date:

Rank	Network	Program	Total Viewers
1	CTV	THE BIG BANG THEORY	3.7 million
2	CTV	CRIMINAL MINDS	3.2 million
3	CTV	CASTLE	3.13 million
4	CTV	GOTHAM	3.12 million
5	CTV	HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER	3.0 million
6	Global	NCIS	2.9 million
7	Global	NCIS: NEW ORLEANS	2.6 million
8	CTV	MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.	2.5 million
9	Global	SURVIVOR: SAN JUAN DEL SUR	2.4 million
10	CTV	CSI	2.3 million

Canada's Most-Watched Programs, A25-54, Season-to-Date:

Rank	Network	Program	A25-54
1	CTV	THE BIG BANG THEORY	1.7 million
2	CTV	GOTHAM	1.6 million
3	CTV	CRIMINAL MINDS	1.30 million
4	CTV	MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.	1.28 million
5	CTV	CASTLE	1.25 million
6	Global	SURVIVOR: SAN JUAN DEL SUR	1.13 million
7	CTV	HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER	1.12 million
8	Global	NCIS	1.0 million
9	CTV	THE AMAZING RACE	946,000
10	CTV	GREY'S ANATOMY	934,000

About CTV
CTV is Canada's #1 private broadcaster. Featuring a wide range of quality news, sports, information, and entertainment programming, CTV has been Canada's most-watched television network for the past 13 years in a row. CTV is a division of Bell Media, Canada's premier multimedia company with leading assets in television, radio, digital, and Out-of-Home. Bell Media is owned by BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), Canada's largest communications company. More information about CTV can be found on the network's website at CTV.ca.

Source: Numeris (BBM Canada), Fall Season to Date (2 weeks): Sept. 22 – Oct. 5, final data.

Program audiences for THE FLASH based on preliminary data with playback + 7 days.

CTV electronic audience databases and Top 20 records incorporate data beginning in 1994 and 2004, respectively.

Audiences prior to August 31, 2009 based on BBM Nielsen Media Research Mark II meters.

SOURCE: CTV

Jim Quan, CTV Networks, 416.384.5311, [email protected]; Renee Dupuis, CTV Networks, 416.384.3154, [email protected]