TORONTO – Almost six million Canadians sampled the season-ending episode of Canadian Idol last night, according to BBM figures, said CTV Thursday.
Prime Minister Paul Martin even offered congratulations to winner Melissa O’Neil. The huge audience, in excess of last year’s peak of 3.6 million, was achieved at the exact moment that 17-year-old Calgary singer O’Neil was crowned the first female Canadian Idol.
She then signed a record contract with Sony BMG Canada’s Lisa Zbitnew and her first single, Alive, hit the airwaves.
The two-hour finale finished with an average audience of 2.7 million viewers, the most watched episode of the series and easily winning the night for CTV. BBM reports that that nearly 50% of the audience (1.24 million) was comprised of adults aged 18-49 and that the performance-packed episode reached 5.8 million people. One in six Canadians watched some part of the finale.
In Toronto and Vancouver, Canadian Idol won the night. In Toronto, Canadian Idol took every half-hour in every demo. In a head-to-head duel, viewers voted for Canadian Idol over Rock Star INXS (Global). From 9-10 p.m. ET, Canadian Idol attracted 506,000 viewers versus Rock Star’s 166,000 (2+). In the key adult 18-34 demographic, Canadian Idol outperformed Rock Star by 233%. In Vancouver, Canadian Idol bested Rock Star by 32 per cent (2+), says the CTV release.
For the third year in a row, Canadian Idol finished its season with an average audience of over 2 million viewers. With an overall average of 2.01 million viewers for its 34-episode season, Canadian Idol was this summer’s most-watched show in every demo.
Viewers cast over 3.65 million votes following Tuesday’s performance episode, the most ever, with a total of 38 million votes cast, an increase of 19% compared to last year and more than one for every man, woman and child in the country.
