CBC has scored again, this time with its inaugural two-hour special Test the Nation, which recorded an impressive 1.5 million viewers on Sunday despite airing opposite Law & Order: Criminal Intent and The Amazing Race on CTV.

Test the Nation — which pitted a variety of Canucks, including mayors, radio DJs and tattoo artists, against each other in a realtime interactive IQ test — was preceded by the second annual special The Next Great Prime Minister, which drew a solid 865,000 viewers. That’s up 59% from last year’s show, which aired on CTV. Prime Minister was hosted by comic Rick Mercer and featured former PMs Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark, Kim Campbell and Paul Martin.

A Ceeb spokesperson says the net is ‘extremely pleased’ with the result, and says more such specials could follow. The network will air the follow-up Test the Nation: Watch Your Language this fall, challenging participants and viewers to spot common mistakes in spelling and grammar.

The high ratings follow last week’s season ender of Little Mosque on the Prairie, which averaged more than one million viewers per episode during its inaugural run. In January, the network hit the high 900s with another fact-based show, The Greatest Canadian Invention. In sports, the Ceeb’s recent coverage of the Tim Hortons Brier curling finals averaged 1.2 million, up 19% from 2006, and cracked BBM Nielsen’s top 30 list for the week, a rare accomplishment for CBC shows that aren’t Hockey Night in Canada.

Over at Global, the second season of The Jane Show, starring comic Teresa Pavlinek, experienced a slight increase March 7 with the help of its new lead-in, Crossing Jordan. The episode entitled ‘Voices from the Past,’ aired to 257,000 viewers at 10 p.m., up from a weak 154,000 for its first two episodes. The Jane Show ends its season May 2.

Global’s teen drama Falcon Beach is also struggling to find an audience, averaging only 211,000 viewers in its Friday 8 p.m. timeslot, though the March 16 ‘Permanent Collection’ ep drew 269,000 viewers — the series’ second highest audience since its Jan. 5 season premiere. The teen-centric series averaged 250,000 during its first run. The season two finale of Falcon Beach airs on March 30.

With files from Media in Canada