Charlie Harper is officially dead but TWO AND A HALF MEN is alive and kicking! Ashton Kutcher’s hugely anticipated debut was watched by 5 million viewers last night on CTV, the most-watched regular series broadcast on Canadian television in six years. Marking its largest audience ever, last night’s TWO AND A HALF MEN broadcast goes down in the record books as the second most-watched comedy broadcast ever in Canada. One in three Canadians watching television last night tuned in to some part of the broadcast.
While a record number of viewers tuned in for Charlie’s funeral and Walden Schmidt’s (played by Ashton Kutcher) wet but splashy arrival, CTV drowned the competition, winning Night 1 of Premiere Week with more viewers in primetime than any other network, winning every individual hour from 8-11 p.m. and claiming five of the Top 6 programs of the night overall.
A closer look at Night One of Premiere Week:
8 p.m.
· FLASHPOINT’s Fall Premiere won the timeslot with 1.5 million viewers over the season premieres of NCIS (1.4 million, Global) and HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (983,000, Citytv/CBS). FLASHPOINT was up 12% over its summer premiere earlier this year.
9 p.m.
· TWO AND A HALF MEN was watched by 1.4 million viewers in Toronto alone, delivering a massive 22.0 Rating among A25-54.
· Nationally, a total of 6.7 million viewers watched some or all of the broadcast.
9:30 p.m.
· The season’s new “It Girl” Whitney Cummings propelled her new series WHITNEY to 2 million viewers, winning the time period nationally out of simulcast and doubling the series premiere of 2 BROKE GIRLS (964,000, Citytv/CBS).
10 p.m.
· CASTLE’s highly anticipated cliff hanger season premiere (2.0 million) – in which viewers learned the fate of injured Kate Beckett – won its timeslot with total viewers and all key demos over HAWAII FIVE-O (1.9 million, Global/CBS) and the series premiere of THE PLAYBOY CLUB (485,000, Citytv/NBC). Continuing its momentum from last season, CASTLE was up 13% among A25-54 compared to its premiere last season, while HAWAII FIVE-0 dropped 20%.
Meanwhile on CTV Two, 1.4 million viewers watched the season premiere of DANCING WITH THE STARS from 8-10 p.m. highlighted by a shining performance by Chaz Bono and outperforming both NCIS/HOUSE (870,000) on Global and HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER/HAPPY ENDINGS/2 BROKE GIRLS (770,000) on Citytv/CBS.
All of last night’s episodes on CTV and CTV Two are available now on demand on the CTV Video Player at CTV.ca.
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