Americans have been charmed by the quirky residents of Dog River, who drew high ratings to Superstation WGN when Corner Gas made its south-of-the-border premiere.

Amid favorable reviews from U.S. critics, the first two episodes of season one scored 357,000 and 290,000 viewers (2+), respectively, on Sept. 10 at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. ET. Those numbers compare favorably to America’s Funniest Home Videos, the highest rated show on the satellite and cable channel, which garnered 541,000 viewers in the same Monday timeslot the week prior.

The Gas episodes also played well in the key 18-49 demographic — 176,000 and 168,000 — taking second place behind AFHV and even finishing ahead of a Cubs-Cardinals game.

‘Baseball, especially Cubs competing for the division title, is big on our network, so this was a great start,’ a spokesperson for WGN tells Playback Daily. The Chicago-based channel reaches over 70 million U.S. homes. It celebrated the premiere of the Regina-shot comedy, seen here on CTV, with a free gas giveaway during an online contest.

Back-to-back episodes of Gas — from producers Virginia Thompson, David Storey and Brent Butt, who also stars — now air in a regular Wednesday 8 p.m. timeslot following AFHV, and repeats Mondays through Thursdays at 12 a.m.

Meanwhile, CTV premiered the fifth season of the comedy on Monday at 9:30 p.m. to a strong 1.2 million viewers, up slightly from last season’s debut episode.

The show has been widely praised by U.S. critics, with newspaper giant Gannett News Service calling it ‘one of the season’s best new shows,’ while, in an odd turn of phrase, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says it’s the fall’s ‘best, least objectionable comedy series.’ The San Jose Mercury News labels it a ‘delightful Canadian comedy,’ while the McClatchy News Service writes ‘the funniest show coming to television this fall is not The Big Bang Theory or Chuck… the knock-down winner is an obscure little show from Canada called Corner Gas.’