Remember when people freaked out over Degrassi moving to Tuesdays? You probably heard things from fans such as:
A) Degrassi’s moving days again? Yep it’s pretty much as good as canceled.
B) Degrassi’s moving to Tuesday nights against stronger shows in network primetime, so its ratings are going to suffer.
Despite all of that nonsensical chatter, ratings for Degrassi on TeenNick actually increased in 13C:
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1317 (The World I Know): 0.3 / 444,000 viewers
1318 (Better Man): 0.2 / 248,000 viewers
1319 (Dig Me Out): 0.2 / 256,00 viewers
1320 (Power To The People): 0.3 / 462,000 viewers
1321 (No Surprises): 0.2 / 317,000 viewers
1322 (Basket Case): 0.3 / 378,000 viewers
1323/1324 (Unbelievable): 0.2 / 283,000 viewers
1325 (What It’s Like): 0.2 / 342,000 viewers
1326 (Close To Me): 0.2 / 262,000 viewers
1327 (Army Of Me): 0.3 / 376,000 viewers
1328 (Everything Is Everything): 0.3 / 456,000 viewers
1329 (Sparks Will Fly Pt. 1): 0.2 / 297,000 viewers
1330 (Sparks Will Fly Pt. 2): 0.3 / 409,000 viewers
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In comparison, here’s 13B’s ratings:
1309 (This Is How We Do It): 0.2 rating / 321,000 viewers
1310 (You Got Me): 0.2 / 268,000
1311 (You Oughta Know): 0.2 / 333,000
1312 (Everything You’ve Done Wrong): 0.1 / 172,000
1313 (Who Do You Think You Are): 0.1 / 214,000
1314 (Barely Breathing): 0.3 / 350,000
1315 (Black Or White): 0.2 / 277,000
1316 (Spiderwebs): 0.1 / 212,000
Ratings for 13C were completed over the weekend, and the most notable comments I’ve seen are people saying Unbelievable should’ve had more viewers than it did. Don’t forget that the episode was bumped back an hour…there’s no reason to believe it would’ve have less than 300k viewers if it had aired during its normal timeslot.
Another thing to note is that TeenNick’s ratings as a network have been on the rise. It’s fun to complain about how the network basically airs nothing but iCarly and Victorious reruns, but those (as well as Zoey 101 reruns) are consistently bringing in the most viewers week after week. From a Nickelodeon press release sent out on April 29th:
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Nickelodeon’s niche nets — Nicktoons and TeenNick — scored their best April performances with their core demos and posted double and triple-digit year over year gains for the month.
TeenNick averaged a 0.5/72k with Teens 12-17 (+114%) and scored 225k total viewers (+94%).
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Unfortunately, again, I don’t have any ratings information for Degrassi’s Canadian network, MTV Ca.
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Kary's Degrassi Blog 
i actually sacrifice one show because of it and i don’t care cause I love dregressi :)
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I agree with the numbers. Degrassi season 13c was MUCH better than 13b, and deserved the rise in rating and views.
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This is one area of television that I know a little something about. Of course, ratings, advertising, and scheduling all go hand in hand. In the US, DeGrassi is basically without equal. They have the teen drama market essentially wrapped up. Advertising dollars per viewer is at very healthy ratio which is one reason why the franchise is so healthy. What all this means is that as long as the ratings remain at this level, there is no particular end in sight for the show. This should make fans pretty happy.
They did have a fairly weak summer, but in true DeGrassi style, just when you think it’s down it bounces back strong. I’ll be the first to admit that I felt they needed to make some changes after the summer, but realizing that the way they film prevents this, I really questioned whether they’d be able to pull it out.
I’m still of the opinion that this format that has been so successful for so long might need a little tune-up. I’m pretty sure that the upcoming series will be status quo, but after they hand over the reins, I imagine we might see a few changes.
For all those who are thinking about a career in the film industry, you’ll be interested to know that DeGrassi was a topic of study last fall at Cal State. I guess they spent 4 full weeks carving up the show attempting to figure out how its been able to do what it’s done for so long on the budget it has operated under. It’s most definitely a model show, in more ways than one.
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1) How do you think the show fares in Canada in terms of ratings/advertising/scheduling? Is it essentially the same as it is here in the US?
2) If Degrassi were to be canceled in Canada and of course stopped receiving government funding, would there ever be an instance where say Viacom would be willing to step in and fund it?
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The Canada Media Fund is the subject of a lot of debate these days. If DeGrassi was a French or Aboriginal speaking language show, they would be golden. But right now the program (CMF, not DeGrassi) is under a lot of fire. City wise, Toronto’s a much better location to film in than Vancouver these days and has been for the past 2 years. All because of incentives.
To answer your questions, tho, it would be easier if we could get raw ratings numbers from Canada like what is available in the US. But the Canadians look at it through different eyes than the US does. I can really only guess at their ratings. What is published there is probably not a true picture of what’s going on. But let’s say they were similar. I would say it would be a total jump ball. The word is that DeGrassi is a pretty well run company and they are able to put out significantly more for less. I don’t think it currently costs a whole bunch to have the show aired in the US. That means that if the Canadians bailed, it would probably all hinge on what type of package the new production company was willing to put out there. Personally, I think when this deal was put together a few months ago, they most likely received some assurances about the viability of the show. Of course, the other side of that coin is that in TV, a sure thing isn’t all that sure. But US syndication deals were probably a big part of it. I mean that’s where the long term money is at.
So, like I said, next year will be business as usual, but beyond that, nobody without a crystal ball knows for sure. One thing, DeGrassi is a desirable property in a niche market. I don’t see it going away anytime real soon. I wish I could offer more….
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