The first season of Global’s nighttime soap Falcon Beach averaged nearly 250,000 viewers per episode, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. But according to Barbara Williams, the network’s SVP, programming and production, the mediocre first-play numbers do not paint an accurate picture of how the series performed.

‘In the first three or four weeks, we were averaging between 350,000 and 400,000,’ says Williams. ‘To us, [those] numbers said we have a good show that appeals to the right demo. In the second half of the season we had some scheduling conflicts, so the show didn’t grow the way we would have liked it to.’

Williams admits that bouncing the program from Thursdays to Wednesdays to Saturdays contributed to Falcon’s viewer decline, but adds that it received a lot of extra attention during the show’s repeat airings. For example, the episode that drew 204,000 on Jan. 26 drew 300,000 two days later. She says in terms of total numbers for each episode over all airings, the episodes averaged about 500,000 viewers each.

Global may give Falcon’s first season another run over the summer, in tandem with the series’ debut on ABC Family in the U.S., ‘taking advantage of the publicity spill that always ends up coming into this country,’ Williams says.

Meanwhile, the 2 x 120 CBC miniseries Canada Russia `72 drew an average of 814,000 on April 9 and 771,000 on April 10, likely falling short of expectations and CBC TV head Richard Stursberg’s goal of one million or more viewers for every CBC dramatic program. The Sunday broadcast ended with a peak of 883,000 viewers, and Monday finished with 906,000, leading into a CBC National that drew 931,000 – one of its highest ratings this year.

In CTV news, its MOW Selling Innocence, about the Internet exploitation of a teenaged model, garnered more than one million viewers on April 3 at 8 p.m., and 470,000 more in its repeat airing on April 8.

The net’s live broadcast of the 2006 Juno Awards drew an average of 1.7 million viewers on April 2, a 30% jump from last year. A one-hour version will be broadcast on five continents via CTV’s partnership with MTV Networks International later this year

CHUM’s Live from the Genies broadcast on March 13 – a live one-hour Genie Awards after-party broadcast featuring clips from the actual awards show – generated only 34,000 viewers combined in the Ontario, Vancouver and Calgary markets. The special ran at 9 p.m. in each. According to BBM, last year’s CHUM broadcast received 314,000 viewers as a 90-minute awards show broadcast. Numbers for the Winnipeg, Edmonton and Quebec market broadcasts were unavailable.