With u.s. sweeps week in progress and the usual scheduling fallout still on the horizon, Canadian broadcasters are already juggling properties to accommodate changing u.s. simulcasts and to make way for mid-season replacements.

It’s five months before all the votes are in, but midway through the 1995/96 season and on the verge of hibernation months traditionally a ratings watershed, CanWest Global Communications is winning the race with the most programs in the top 10. The combined CTV Television Network/ Baton Broadcasting Systems schedule is giving it a run for its money, effectively blocking regular weekday primetime sweeps with its own, albeit shorter, inventory of ratings blockbusters.

‘It’s a dog fight,’ says Arthur Weinthal, vp of entertainment programming at ctv. ‘Who’s winning goes hour by hour.’

Golden

Of the Canadian series on air (four are launching in January), CanWest’s The Outer Limits and ctv’s Due South lead the pack. CanWest doesn’t collect national data until January so a scale of comparison is difficult, but for the week of Nov. 19, Outer Limits rang in with 641,000 viewers 2+ in the whole of Ontario while the premiere of ctv’s Due South that same week attracted 264,000 viewers in the Toronto/Hamilton area and 1.9 million viewers nationally. Both CanWest and ctv are reportedly golden about the numbers for the season on both shows.

Also topping the list are cbc’s homegrown comedies. This Hour Has 22 Minutes turned out 1.2 million viewers 2+ on Nov. 6 and Royal Canadian Air Farce is consistently rerouting some of Baton’s Jeopardy following with viewership up 16% over last year and an average-minute audience of 1.5 million viewers.

Bringing in less stellar performances are ctv’s Taking The Falls, running an audience 2+ of 651,000 nationally for Nov. 25, and Lonesome Dove, up against CanWest’s Seinfeld Thursday at 9 p.m., rating a 620,000 national audience 2+ for the same week. Liberty Street, moved to Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. against Beverly Hills 90210 from its Monday night slot as of Nov. 22, opened that night with a 0.4 Nielsen rating of viewers 2+ compared to 90210’s 10.7.

In flux

With more changes expected in January, the schedules in play look somewhat different than the September originals. CanWest in particular is spending the Christmas season shopping for new slots for several of its primetime ratings draws, some bounced in the u.s. and others needing to move when Molson Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts begin mid-December.

abc moved Murder One to Monday nights in November in the same slot as Chicago Hope, another CanWest property, and 90210, Party of Five and Courthouse need to clear out to make way for hnic. A slot, too, has to be nailed down for Traders before it premiers in January.

‘It’s a bit of a challenge,’ says Doug Hoover, national vp of programming and promotions for CanWest.

At this point, 90210 will move into Monday night (slot undecided) to ride Baton’s Melrose Place audience and give CanWest a fighting chance on Mondays against the ctv/Baton Melrose/Murphy Brown lineup, which is regularly winning the Monday ratings war. (For more on Baton, see ‘Programming,’ p. 8.)

Key for CanWest is not disrupting the Tuesday night sked, with the Frasier/Grace Under Fire/ NYPD Blue lineup regularly beating Baton’s Home Improvement/ Pursuit of Happiness/W5 with Eric Malling combination. With nbc just canceling Pursuit, ctv will move the John Larroquette Show in behind Baton’s Home Improvement as of Dec. 12 to challenge the Tuesday night status quo.

Caroline in the City, The Single Guy, jag and Outer Limits are the new CanWest properties doing best to date, says Hoover. ‘We’re very pleased with Outer Limits. It’s the first Canadian program we’ve had in our top 10.’

Those with a nebulous future include Courthouse, headed back to the studio to be retooled, and Dave’s World, averaging about a 6 on the ratings scale, which is being bumped from its Tuesday 8:30 p.m. slot in January by Third Rock From the Sun, an nbc comedy starring Jane Curtain and John Lithgow.

At ctv, the schedule changed before the season opened. Taking the Falls, slated in June for the Tuesday slot long held by W5, premiered Saturdays at 10 p.m. with W5 staying put. Lonesome Dove moved in behind Due South for summer reruns and stayed for the new season in the slot where W5 was to test the water as a news alternative on a popular sitcom night.

According to Weinthal, Lonesome Dove played well on Thursdays through the summer and it made sense to leave it there as a grittier Seinfeld alternative. As well, the female contingent to Taking the Falls made for good alternative programming to hnic.

Taking the Falls

On Taking the Falls, Weinthal says, ‘It’s doing alright, not standing out hugely, but it’s subject to a lot of preemption with our figure skating inventory and by baseball earlier in the year.’ The decision to renew or not to renew won’t happen until February or March.

The cbs schedule has been particularly chaotic this year, with the u.s. net getting whacked by nbc and abc and having a dearth of replacements at hand. It’s been a bonus for ctv, since the network decided to order 13 new episodes of the already established Due South rather than start from scratch on a new series, says Weinthal.

With viewers, Due South has ‘found its niche,’ says Weinthal. CanWest’s Friends and The Single Guy are winning the slot, but numbers from the season premiere are being mostly maintained, with 1.2 million viewers on Nov. 23 and 1.7 million on Nov. 16.

Of ctv’s new series, Hudson Street is doing best thus far. Ratings high points include er, The Beatles special, and America’s Funniest Home Videos, bringing in 2.5 million viewers Nov. 19.

Lonesome Dove

Lonesome Dove ‘is having a tough time,’ says Weinthal, and ctv’s Lois & Clark has lost a bit in the Sunday night 8 p.m. slot after CanWest brought Mad About You into the top of the hour this season.

At cbc, Howie Mandel’s Sunny Skies was canceled in November, clearing the Wednesday 8:30 p.m. slot. Liberty Street, which debuted behind This Hour Has 22 Minutes on Monday nights, was immediately shuttled into the pre-Central Park West hour.

According to Phyllis Platt, executive director, arts and entertainment at cbc, Liberty Street ‘wasn’t performing’ on Monday, and although its first Wednesday night appearance brought a disappointing 380,000 viewers, ‘it’s the first time at 8:30 and there’s still months in the season.’

Comics moved to Monday at 9:30 p.m. mid-November, leaving the top of the Liberty Street slot open for Mr. Bean, whom ‘viewers find wherever he is’ and may give Liberty a boost. Side Effects too is turning in disappointing numbers, being regularly beaten by the X-Files, says Platt.

New slots undecided

Slots for new mid-season Canadian series Straight Up (formerly Talk 16) and The Rez won’t be decided until cbs decides what to do with cpw, a controversial cbc buy. The show is on hiatus now, but Platt isn’t convinced it’ll be canceled despite speculation to the contrary. ‘They’ve invested a lot to walk away.’

In Canada, Platt says cpw was doing about 750,000 viewers with the cbc stations that ran it, ‘not all that bad, under the circumstances.’ Can’t Hurry Love is doing much better with an average of about 1.4 million viewers.

Another new addition to the cbc sked this season could be Gullages, a new series about the life of a Newfoundland taxi driver produced by Bill McGillivray. cbc has ordered six and the show is in production.

New Canadian series nailed into the schedule include CanWest’s and Nelvana’s Jake & The Kid, which will run Saturdays at 7 p.m. beginning Dec. 16 to get the primetime family audience, says Hoover. Canadian Wilderness Journal and Danger Bay taking the hour now ‘will be shelved.’

Traders is still floating, looking for a slot appropriate for its upscale, professional 18-49 audience. Hoover has yet to see a finished show and will wait to do that and for the u.s. nets to settle down post-sweeps before making a decision.