CBC is giving its hockey soap MVP a step up to Tuesdays, swapping the steamy series with jPod, which is moving to Fridays beginning this week.

The move comes as both one-hours have struggled to maintain audiences in the key 25-54 demographic. jPod, from Vancouver’s No Equal Entertainment, started off with 293,000 in the Tuesday 9 p.m. timeslot, but by the third week had dropped to 100,000. The story is much the same for MVP, about the off-ice antics of hockey pros and their wives and girlfriends, which garnered 208,000 viewers in the demo with its debut, but was down to 51,000 last week.

‘That’s a substantial drop,’ says media buyer Florence Ng of ZenithOptimedia, though she notes it’s not unusual for networks to move new shows. MVP is made by Toronto prodco Screen Door.

‘MVP needs more help than the other shows, so maybe they want to give it a chance somewhere else to see if the numbers pick up,’ says Ng.

The move to Tuesday will pin MVP up against perennial favorites American Idol on CTV and House on Global, though the latter has been mired in reruns for much of the last two months. jPod will be left fighting for eyeballs at 9 p.m. on Fridays. Both series premiered to generally positive reviews.

CBC has had better luck with new programs including the sitcom Sophie, which was recently sold to ABC Family, and The Border, which CBS has passed on, although reportedly ABC may still be interested. Reality series The Week the Women Went fetched nearly 900,000 2+ viewers last week.