Only 68 of the thousands of Canadians who vied for slots on CBC’s new primetime reality series Making the Cut appeared in the show’s two-hour debut, and while the series is not expected to attract the giant NHL audiences CBC may have to do without this year, the pubcaster is pleased with initial response to the new show.

The Sept. 21 debut attracted an average audience of 570,000 viewers, according to preliminary 2+ ratings from Nielsen Media Research. While the second episode, airing at 8 p.m. on Sept. 28, attracted a slightly smaller audience, an average 474,000 viewers, CBC remains confident in the show’s potential.

According to CBC spokesperson Ruth-Ellen Soles, early ratings for Making the Cut were right around what they expected, ‘but we think it will grow,’ she says.

While one might assume that Canadian audiences would prefer hockey over pop music, CTV’s reality hit Canadian Idol, by comparison, generated average audiences of more than two million viewers per episode when it first hit the airwaves in summer 2003.

CBC’s new 13-week Monday night series, in which the 68 would-be hockey pros will be whittled down to six finalists who will have the chance to train at an NHL camp with a Canadian team, is not the only reality-style series in CBC’s fall lineup. The pubcaster is also gearing up to air The Greatest Canadian, in which reality show-style voting will determine the number-one Canuck of all time. The in-house production debuts Oct. 17 and will air regularly on Mondays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m.

Meanwhile, Lost has found a big audience at CTV. According to Nielsen 2+ ratings, the Oct. 2 premiere, which introduced viewers to the cast of castaways, generated an average 1.16 million viewers, peaking at 1.23 million in the show’s final half-hour. Lost has been added to CTV’s primetime schedule and started airing Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Oct. 6, bumping Wife Swap to Mondays at 9 p.m. And the ratings success of Medical Investigation, which attracted an average 1.34 million viewers since its Sept. 9 debut, has secured the NBC show a Friday 10 p.m. slot, sending anticipated hit Dr. Vegas right back to the shelf.

-www.cbc.ca

-www.ctv.ca