As Canada prepares to kick off its annual UpFront week in the heart of downtown Toronto today, Networks north of the 49th parallel (Namely, CTV, Shaw and CityTV) spent the better part of yesterday afternoon inundating our inbox with press releases touting their network’s dominance. Yet rather than bore you with the meaningless numbers — after-all, we believe one of the great thinkers of our time put it best when he* stated, “People can come up with statistics to prove anything.14% of people know that,” we thought readers on both side of the border might get a little bit more out of a comparison: Are American and Canadian viewing habits really as different as our taste in french fry toppings might suggest? The surprising, and somewhat depressing answer can be found in our side-by-side comparison charting the Top 20 shows (in total viewers) of this past broadcast season, after the jump.
| America’s Top 20 | Viewers | Canada’s Top 20 | Viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday Night Football | 20.74 | The Big Bang Theory | 3.63 |
| American Idol | 19.81 | The Amazing Race | 2.62 |
| NCIS | 19.49 | Survivor | 2.57 |
| American Idol Results | 18.33 | Grey’s Anatomy | 2.46 |
| Dancing with the Stars | 18.23 | CSI | 2.36 |
| DWTS Results | 16.08 | NCIS | 2.20 |
| NCIS: Los Angeles | 16.01 | The Mentalist | 2.17 |
| The Big Bang Theory | 15.82 | American Idol | 2.16 |
| The Voice | 15.76 | Hockey Night in Canada | 2.07 |
| Sunday NFL Pre-Game | 15.74 | NCIS: Los Angeles | 2.03 |
| Two and a Half Men | 14.63 | Dancing with the Stars | 1.99 |
| The Mentalist | 14.33 | Missing | 1.95 |
| Person of Interest | 14.33 | Castle | 1.91 |
| The O.T. | 13.31 | House | 1.90 |
| Criminal Minds | 13.19 | Hawaii Five-0 | 1.89 |
| 60 Minutes | 13.02 | The X Factor | 1.86 |
| Modern Family | 12.93 | DWTS Results | 1.85 |
| Survivor | 12.77 | Glee | 1.84 |
| The X Factor | 12.66 | Blue Bloods | 1.76 |
| The X Factor Results | 12.57 | Hometeam Hockey | 1.73 |
[Photo Credit: CTV Photos]
Editor’s Note: “He” being Homer J. Simpson