While several new shows on CBC struggled to reach audiences during the final stretch of the 2004 Major League Baseball season, the pubcaster came out on top when it premiered H2O, a two-part thriller starring Paul Gross, just days after the final game of the World Series.

Episode one of the miniseries, in which Gross plays the son of a Canadian prime minister who dies under suspicious circumstances, attracted 908,000 viewers when it premiered Oct. 31 at 8 p.m. Costarring Gordon Pinsent, Callum Keith Rennie and Martha Henry, the final episode aired Nov. 1, when 927,000 viewers tuned in, according to overnight figures.

A new CBC sitcom, Ciao Bella, produced by Montreal’s Cirrus Communications, got off to a slow start when it premiered to 196,000 viewers on Oct. 20, the same day as the Boston Red Sox’s historic comeback in the final game of the American League Pennant, which attracted a record 1.14 million viewers to Rogers Sportsnet, which picked up the international feed from Fox.

Ciao Bella’s second episode, which aired Oct. 27, fared better, with 242,000 Canadians tuning in, but it was up against the equally historic final game of the World Series. The Red Sox victory, the team’s first championship win since 1918, drew 912,000 to Sportsnet, the third highest audience in the network’s history.

CBC’s The Greatest Canadian also took a hit from baseball after garnering audiences of more than one million viewers for its Oct. 17 premiere. Up against the American League pennant, the Oct. 20 episode attracted 512,000 viewers, with only 438,000 tuning in on Oct. 27 against game four of the World Series.

The audience for CBC’s hockey-themed reality show Making the Cut, which was growing steadily in the first weeks after its Sept. 21 premiere, also dipped to 340,000 on Oct. 19, then picked up slightly to 431,000 on Oct. 26.

Meanwhile, CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada substitute, Movie Night in Canada, continues to attract significant audiences on Saturday nights, despite criticism for airing Hollywood fare. On Oct. 30, 795,000 tuned in for the family film Monsters Inc., airing 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and 1.12 million tuned in from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. for the blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

-www.cbc.ca