South of the border, the Super Bowl is the television event of the year. In Canada, it has much less of a hold on the viewing public.

But thanks to a thrilling fourth quarter victory for the New York Giants against the New England Patriots, this year’s Super Bowl was up by almost 17 percent from last year, pulling in an average of 4.2 million viewers for CTV. Compare that to the game’s record U.S. viewership, with 97.5 million people tuning in.

When was the last time 9.75 million people watched a TV program in Canada? Not in recent memory.

Of course, 4.2 million is still a massive Canadian TV audience. However, it’s not the biggest event of the year. In fact, bigger than Super Bowl, the Grey Cup and sometimes even the Stanley Cup Finals is — wait for it — the Academy Awards.

No doubt CTV is hoping for the Writers Strike to come to an official close so the pageantry (and ad dollars) continues on.

Here are top 20 programs in Canada for the week of January 28 to February 3, 2008:

1. NFL SUPER BOWL (CTV, Sun 6:03pm) 4,234,000
2. AMERICAN IDOL (CTV, Tue 8pm) 2,821,000
3. AMERICAN IDOL (CTV, Wed 8pm) 2,805,000
4. NFL SUPER BOWL POST-GAME SHOW (CTV, Sun 10:13pm) 2,546,000
5. HOUSE (Global, Tue 9pm) 2,305,000
6. LOST (CTV, Thu 9pm) 1,855,000
7. LAW & ORDER (CTV, Wed 10pm) 1,825,000
8. LOCAL EVENING NEWS (CTV, Mon-Fri 6pm) 1,629,000
9. THE MOMENT OF TRUTH (CTV, Wed 9:01am) 1,587,000
10. LAW & ORDER: SVU (CTV, Tue 10pm) 1,553,000

11. LOST (CTV, Thu 8pm) 1,553,000
12. HOUSE (Global, Sun 10:38pm) 1,294,000
13. JEOPARDY/ACCESS HOLLYWOOD (CTV, Tue-Fri 7:30pm) 1,255,000
14. NCIS (Global, Tue 8pm) 1,246,000
15. ELI STONE (CTV, Thu 10:02pm) 1,219,000
16. CORNER GAS (CTV, Mon 8pm) 1,181,000
17. TWO AND A HALF MEN (CTV, Mon 8:30pm) 1,158,000
18. HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA, GAME #1 (CBC, Sat 7pm) 1,133,000
19. LOCAL WEEKEND EVENING NEWS (CTV, Sat 6pm) 1,081,000
20. CRIMETIME SATURDAYS (CTV Sat 10pm) 1,049,000

21. GLOBAL NATIONAL (Global, Mon-Fri 5:30pm) 1,039,000
22. CRIMINAL MINDS (CTV, Tue 9pm) 1,001,000
23. LOCAL NEWS HOUR (Global, Weeknights 6pm) 987,000
24. CELEBRITY APPRENTICE (Global, Thu 9pm) 960,000
25. YOUNG & THE RESTLESS (Global, Mon-Fri 4:30pm) 956,000
26. GHOST WHISPERER (CTV, Fri 8pm) 940,000
27. RICK MERCER REPORT (CBC, Tue 8pm) 904,000
28. CRIMETIME SATURDAYS (CTV, Sat 8pm) 901,000
29. LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE (CBC, Wed 8pm) 891,000
30. THE WEEK THE WOMEN WENT (CBC, Mon 8pm) 855,000

This chart shows the top TV programs for all home market stations for the week indicated. Programs are ranked based on their average minute audience. The chart also indicates the broadcast outlet on which the program aired and the program’s start time (shown in Eastern Time). Source: BBM Nielsen Canada

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