Sunday, May 13, 2012

Canadians Are Different–A TV Perspective

CanadianFlagCare to guess what the most popular TV series in Canada most weeks is? Survivor? NCIS? American Idol? Big Bang Theory? Dancing With The Stars?
If you said any of those, you’d be wrong. The most popular TV series on Canadian TV most weeks is…The Amazing Race! Week after week and year after year The Amazing Race is among the top five series on Canadian TV and is usually in the top three. This illustrates a point: Canadians are different from Americans and illustrating this difference what is and isn’t popular on TV.

Allan Strachan of Postmedia did a survey of Canadian TV – or rather (as he describes them) the “Canadian mainstream broadcast networks” as the end of the TV season approached, giving shows letter grades based on the night and the ratings. Canadian ratings are based on live viewing an “Average Minute Audience” (AMA) The ratings they deal with are “live” audiences who watch the show as it’s broadcast  rather than Live-plus-seven, which would include PVR usage within a week of the show airing. There also doesn’t seem to be any differentiation based on demographics, at least not in the ratings that are available to the general public.

The most important thing to know about Canadian TV ratings is that anything over a million viewers is considered a hit and anything over two million is a huge hit. Anything over three million is the NHL playoffs – with a Canadian team. When you consider that Canada has a population of 34.5 million (according to the 2011 census) this means that a show that attracts over 3 million viewers is being watched by nearly 1/10th of the country. For a show in the US to have an equivalent audience it would have to draw 30 million viewers. Live.

In his article Strachan points out that ratings for the top shows are down from last year. He states that there are two possible explanations for this; either Canadians are watching less TV, or “as is looking more likely, consumers are watching TV in new ways, ways that don’t lend themselves to the traditional way of  measuring audiences.” These would include streaming video onto MP3 devices, or recording them on PVRs and watching them a day (or more) after they air – “so-called ‘live-plus-seven” ratings. There is a third alternative that he fails to acknowledge, namely that people are watching shows that aren’t available on the “Canadian mainstream broadcast networks,” including shows on specialty channels, on premium channels, and on “on-demand” services. There also doesn’t seem to be any differentiation based on demographics, at least not in the ratings that are available to the general public.

Strachan arranged all of the shows on Canadian primetime by day and then gave them a letter grade – A, B, C+, and D (with D really being an F). What I intend to do is look at the shows on a day by day basis, pointing out Strachan’s A and B shows, and also shows in the C+ and D range where there is a major discrepancy in popularity on one side of the border or the other. It is also worth noting that shows that air on the City system of stations tend to underperform. This is at least partly because the City system has broadcasting stations in five cities – Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver – plus three small affiliates in the interior of British Columbia, although they have recently entered into agreements to buy a station in Montreal and to acquire a cable presence in Saskatchewan.I’ll include notes for particular shows or situations. I’ll also include the Canadian AMA and ratings position where available and the US overall audience and position where available. These will be done with Canadian Ratings for the week ending May 6 (the most recent available to me) and the US ratings for the comparable period. There are thirty shows in the Canadian list from the BBM Canada and twenty-five in the US list form TV By The Numbers.

Monday

Show
Group
Canadian Network
Rank
AMA
US Network
Rank
Overall Viewers
Status
Hawaii Five-0
A
Global
9th
1,967,000
CBS
14th
10,909,000
Renewed
The Voice
A
CTV
29th
1,076,000
NBC
20th
9,515,000
Renewed
Dancing With The Stars
A
CTV
21st
1,318,000
ABC
3rd
16,200,000
Renewed
Two & A Half Men
A
CTV
12th
1,672,000
CBS
12th
11,321,000
Renewed
Mike & Molly
B
CTV
CBS
17th
10,162,000
Renewed
2 Broke Girls
B
City
CBS
23rd
9,237,000
Renewed
House
B
Global
10th
1,852,000
FOX
Ending
Bones
B
Global
11th
1,682,000
FOX
Renewed
Castle
B
CTV
13th
1,604,000
ABC
13th
11,081,000
Renewed

Notes: Two & A Half Men is listed in the Canadian ratings as airing on Tuesday night in the week ending April 29. Hawaii Five-0, Mike & Molly, 2 Broke Girls and Two & A Half Men. For the week ending April 15th, which is the period when Strachan did his research, Hawaii Five-0 finished 8th in Canada with an AMA of 1,821,000.

Tuesday
Show
Group
Canadian Network
Rank
AMA
US Network
Rank
Overall Viewers
Status
NCIS
A
Global
CBS
1st
17,583,000
Renewed
NCIS: LA
A
Global
4th
2,206,000
CBS
5th
15,212,000
Renewed
Glee
A
Global
16th
1,558,000
FOX
Renewed
Missing
A
CTV
15th
1,570,000
ABC
Cancelled
Rick Mercer Report
A
CBC
NA
NA
NA
NA
Unforgettable
B
CTV
22th
1,308,000
CBS
15th
10,658,000
Cancelled
22 Minutes
B
CBC
NA
NA
NA
NA
Whitney
B
CTV
NBC
Renewed
Hot In Cleveland
B
CTV
TVLand
NA
NA
Renewed

Notes: Both The Rick Mercer Report and 22 Minutes are Canadian made political satire shows and don’t air in the United States. Whitney was included in Strachan’s list because he was dealing with the whole year. It had ended its season in March. Hot In Cleveland’s US ratings aren’t included here because it is a cable series. Schedules for the two CBC shows are disrupted by the NHL playoffs. Missing aired in Canada on Tuesdays and on Thursdays in the United States.Finally, Strachan doesn’t include the Dancing With The Stars Results show in his breakdown. For the week ending April 29th the show finished 20th with an AMA of 1,190,000. This puts it three places ahead of the performance show with 11,000 more viewers!

Wednesday
Show
Group
Canadian Network
Rank
AMA
US Network
Rank
Overall Viewers
Status
Survivor A Global 5th 2,206,000 CBS 21st 9,428,000 Renewed
American Idol A CTV 8th 2,031,000 FOX 2nd 16,664,000 Unknown
Dragon’s Den A CBC
NA NA NA Renewed
Criminal Minds A CTV
19th
1,370,000
CBS
11th
11,470,000
Renewed
CSI A CTV 6th 2,087,000 CBS
19th
9,749,000
Renewed
Republic of Doyle B CBC
NA NA NA Renewed
Bomb Girls B Global
NA NA NA Renewed
Revenge D City
ABC
Renewed

Notes: Bomb Girls was a short run dramatic series that has been renewed for a second season. Republic of Doyle is a CBC “dramedy”. Dragon’s Den is the Canadian version of the worldwide series that originated in Japan. It debuted before the American Shark Tank which has the same format (and two of the same investors on their panels – Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec, both Canadians). I included Revenge to illustrate the effect of a show being on the City TV system. It is one of the breakout hits of the 2011-12 season but the show doesn’t have an audience on Canadian TV because it’s on City.

Thursday
Show
Group
Canadian Network
Rank
AMA
US Network
Rank
Overall Viewers
Status
Big Bang Theory
A
CTV
1st
3,232,000
CBS
6th
13,908,000
Renewed
Grey’s Anatomy
A
CTV
3rd
2,266,000
ABC
24th
9,237,000
Renewed
The Mentalist
B
CTV
7th
2,050,000
CBS
9th
12,944,000
Renewed
Touch
B
Global
FOX
Renewed
Person Of Interest
C
City
CBS
8th
13,270,000
Renewed

Notes: Person of Interest is included as further proof of what I call the “City Effect.”

Friday
Show
Group
Canadian Network
Rank
AMA
US Network
Rank
Overall Viewers
Status
Blue Bloods A CTV 17th 1,519,000 CBS 16th 10,356,000 Renewed
Marketplace B CBC
NA NA NA Renewed
CSI: New York B CTV
CBS
Renewed
Grimm B CTV 26th 1,094,000 NBC
Renewed
the fifth estate B CBC
NA NA NA Renewed
Undercover Boss B CTV
CBS
Renewed
The Finder B Global
FOX
Cancelled

Notes: Marketplace is a national consumer affairs show that will be going into its 40th season in 2012-13. the fifth estate is a newsmagazine series that will be going into its 38th season. The two shows are currently off the air due to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Saturday
Show
Group
Canadian Network
Rank
AMA
US Network
Rank
Overall Viewers
Status
Hockey Night in Canada
A
CBC
20th
1,358,000
NA
NA
NA
Renewed
Celebrity Apprentice
D
Global
NBC

Notes: The ratings stated here for Hockey Night In Canada are actually the cumulative ratings for CBC’s second round playoff coverage, which was on six of the seven nights in the ratings period. Celebrity Apprentice airs six days after it airs on NBC. Strachan states that the show struggles to reach 300,000 viewers most weeks. Strachan understands that the delay of almost a week in airing the show contributes to the low ratings, but also states that “the numbers suggest hardly anyone in Canada watches NBC on a Sunday night.”

Sunday
Show
Group
Canadian Network
Rank
AMA
US Network
Rank
Overall Viewers
Status
Amazing Race
A
CTV
2nd
2,602,000
CBS
22nd
9,404,000
Renewed
Once Upon A Time
B
CTV
14th
1,601,000
ABC
Renewed
Heartland
B
CBC
NA
NA
NA
Renewed
Desperate House-wives
B
CTV
ABC
25th
9,223,000
Ending
GCB
B
CTV
30th
1,046,000
ABC
Cancelled
The Good Wife
B
Global
CBS
Renewed
CSI: Miami
B
CTV
CBS
Cancelled

Notes: Heartland is a Canadian drama.

Edited to include up to date information.

3 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Interesting, though the letter-grading seems rather arbitrary. HEARTLAND is actually syndicated in the US...I'll have to go check which independent stations are running, say, SUPERNATURAL in Canada. (I've just started working with TV Ontario at work, my first regular gig northerly since there actually was a WIC/OnTV network.)

Brent McKee said...

The letter grading was Strachan's. He most likely has more data to assign his letter grades than I do, like full BBM ratings - maybe even demo breakdowns.

Supernatural is cable only in Canada, on "Space: The Imagination Station." The network is owned by Bell which owns CTV, but they don't put everything they own on their broadcast channels. It's part of the labyrinthine nature of Canadian TV.

michael said...

I am curious about how the Canadians get their TV. Cable, satellite, downloading (such as NetFlix, iTunes, and Amazon) or DVDs.

How many channels are available to view? How much of the country's area is reached by TV in any form? What percentage of Canadians watch TV? Is it based on the free commercial model, the pay-tv model (cable for example), or license fees of the British?