CBC’s fall season got off to a mediocre start with last week’s two-parter St. Urbain’s Horseman, which failed to draw audiences on par with other recent minis commissioned by the network.

Horseman, based on the popular novel by Mordecai Richler, managed a so-so national average of 306,000 viewers (2+) on Wednesday, down to 257,000 the next night — significantly less than, say, Above and Beyond, with an average 464,000 viewers last year, and Dragon Boys, which came in at just under 400,000 in January.

The drama, which follows the post-World War Two struggles of a television and film director (David Julian Hirsh), aired in part opposite Global’s new comedy Back to You, with 1.2 million viewers, and Survivor: China, which nabbed 2.5 million on Sept. 20, close to last season’s numbers but trending down overall.

CBC is, as usual, holding its more promising shows until October or later, rather than face too many U.S. premieres head-on. Though, as with last year’s specials René Lévesque and Booky Makes Her Mark, it seems to have offered Horseman as a sort of ratings sacrifice to September. The Ceeb will start the second season of Intelligence on Oct. 1, following with The Tudors on Oct. 2 and the return of Little Mosque on the Prairie on Oct. 3.

Back to Global, the return of the Fox drama Prison Break on Monday, Sept. 17 did not disappoint, grabbing an average 1.5 million viewers with the first episode of its third season — up from 1.4 million for last season’s premiere.

Global will face stiff competition this week, however, as CTV rolls out big-ticket premieres of shows including the CSIs, Grey’s Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars and Big Shots. CTV premiered only one new show last week, The CW’s teen drama Gossip Girl, which managed a respectable 636,000 viewers, airing out of simulcast one day ahead of its U.S. premiere.

Meanwhile, CTV’s entertainment news show eTalk Daily is claiming victory for its TIFF coverage, which it says reached 13% more viewers than Global’s ET Canada. eTalk drew an average 426,000 viewers over the course of the festival from Sept. 6-15, while ET Canada delivered 376,000, according to numbers released by CTV.

ET Canada, however, declared itself the winner in the key 18-49 demographic with an average 175,000 viewers, versus 161,000 for CTV.