toronto.com article

Arctic Air’ soars to 15-year ratings high for CBC-TV






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Ed Araquel

Adam Beach plays Bobby, a part owner of the maverick airline in the CBC drama Arctic Air.


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By Cassandra Szklarski
The Canadian Press
Mar 28, 2012


CBC says its airline adventure Arctic Air has soared to higher ratings than any of its previous rookie dramas in 15 years.

The public broadcaster says the hour-long series averaged almost one million viewers over 10 episodes.

Arctic Air centres on a Yellowknife-based airline and the mavericks who run it.

It stars Adam Beach as a cocky pilot, Pascale Hutton as a fellow flyer and Kevin McNulty as the airline’s crusty co-founder.

CBC says the show debuted Jan. 10 with 1.2 million viewers and wrapped its run March 13 with a season average of 965,000 viewers.

Network boss Kirstine Stewart says the last time a CBC drama debuted to numbers like that was 15 years ago, when Wind At My Back hit the air.

“We’re back to these heights of when the CBC was kind of more in its heyday when it came to dramas,” said Stewart, executive vice president, CBC English services.

“Which is fantastic considering how the market’s changed in the last 20 years.”