Santa Parade viewers rise, AMAs down by 10%

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Sunday was a big night for TV as it was filled with specials including CFL Eastern and Western Finals, the American Music Awards, and the Toronto Santa Claus Parade. Here are the ratings of those programs and of the regular programs via Bill Brioux:

Show	Network	Audience	Start
Disney – The Game Plan	CBC	559,000	05:00 PM
Heartland	CBC	527,000	07:00 PM
The Phantoms	CBC	446,000	08:00 PM
The National	CBC	506,000	10:00 PM
CFL – East Final: TOR vs MTL	TSN	1,432,000	01:00 PM
CFL – West Final: CGY vs BC	TSN	1,855,000	04:30 PM
NFL – Baltimore vs Pittsburgh	TSN	556,000	07:00 PM
Toronto Santa Claus Parade	CTV	1,081,000	04:30 PM
American Music Awards	CTV	1,711,000	08:00 PM
The Simpsons	Global	919,000	08:00 PM
Family Guy	Global	698,000	09:00 PM
Good Wife	Global	742,000	10:00 PM

The CFL Grey Cup Western Final between Calgary and B.C. was watched by 1.855 million people, which is a 3% increase on TSN compared to last year, according to the latest TSN press release.  Last year, the Western Final match was played by Edmonton and B.C and seen by roughly 1.801 million viewers, which is calculated using this year's figure and the 3% increase that TSN proclaims, since the 2011 Western Final figure isn't publicly available. So, the absolute audience difference from last year's and this year's is approximately 54,000. One could suggest that the size of the city and fan base were factors, but this isn't definitive. More people could be watching because the Grey Cup is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

TSN's press release also states that this year's Eastern Final featuring Toronto and Montreal viewership increased from the previous year -- an increase of 15%. This is inconsistent to what BBM reported last year of the match between Hamilton and Montreal, which was viewed by 1.545 million people.

The American Music Awards lost a significant portion of their audience compared to last year. Last year, it had the highest viewership in a decade with 1.91 million viewers. This year, the audience size shrank by 10.4% to 1.711 million.

The Toronto Santa Claus Parade on CTV was a re-broadcast, while the live coverage was shown on Toronto's CP24. This year's parade was seen by 1.081 million on CTV, which is more than last year's combined audience of 925 000 watching either the CTV or CP24 broadcasts. CTV's press release on this year's parade:

CTV is full of merriment as audiences for THE SANTA CLAUS PARADE were up 28% versus last year, delivering an impressive 1.1 million viewers on CTV yesterday afternoon, becoming the most-watched parade broadcast since 2004.

As a result of this year's popularity of the parade, CTV and CTV Two will be airing this three more times over the next three weekends leading up to the holidays.