The return of Flashpoint did not disappoint for CTV, while Global found an audience with the new Howie Mandel comedy Howie Do It, as the private networks bit by bit started to roll out mid-season fare last week.

Flashpoint scored 1.2 million viewers for the episode ‘Eagle Two’ at 9 p.m. on Friday, guest-starring Canuck veterans Wendy Crewson and Colm Feore. It was the action series’ first new episode of the season since it was bumped from the schedule in late September, and the numbers are on par with its performance last year. (All numbers 2+.)

The show also pulled in over 10 million viewers for CBS, and was the most-watched program in North America on Friday night. Three more episodes of Flashpoint‘s debut season remain, while the crew is currently shooting the 18-ep second season in Toronto.

Only about half of Flashpoint‘s audience stuck around for the premiere episode of Steven Bochco’s new legal drama Raising the Bar, which drew 695,000 viewers at 10 p.m. on CTV.

Meanwhile, Global execs are pleased with the performance of Howie Do It in the Friday 8 p.m. slot, where the show garnered nearly 800,000 viewers opposite strong competition from CTV’s Ghost Whisperer with 1.2 million.

‘Friday night is a tough night, but with the right tone and right sensibility, there is an audience there,’ Canwest’s drama and factual SVP Christine Shipton tells Playback Daily.

She says that the Vancouver market for Howie was ‘much softer than expected’ due to the big draw of hockey star and former Maple Leaf Mats Sundin, who played his first home game for the Vancouver Canucks on Friday. The game handed Rogers Sportsnet its third-highest numbers for an NHL game this season and marked a 41% increase over the season average.

‘It’s unusual to have a Friday night game, so I expect [Howie] will do even better this week,’ Shipton adds. Howie airs in simulcast on NBC, where it nabbed 7.7 million viewers. Production halted on Monday after Mandel collapsed on set, but is due to resume Wednesday.

On Sunday, the Golden Globe Awards returned to television and pulled in 1.8 million viewers for CTV, while it attracted less than 15 million on NBC. The U.S. caster scored 20 million viewers for the fete in 2007. The Globes ceremony was cancelled last year due to the U.S. writers strike.

The Globes bested the long-awaited return of Global’s 24, which clocked in at 1.4 million viewers for the first part of its two-night premiere; comparable to its performance when it was last on the air in 2007.