The debut of CTV’s newest fall series GRIMM delivered anything but grim audiences Friday when an impressive 1.53 million viewers watched the stand-alone premiere at 8 p.m. Against Game 7 of the World Series, GRIMM was Canada’s most-watched television program Friday night in total viewers and all key adult demos, and becomes one of the most-watched new drama premieres of the season, following the debuts of PAN AM, ONCE UPON A TIME, and UNFORGETTABLE. As a result of its debut success, CTV moves the series into simulcast Fridays at 9 p.m. ET beginning this Friday, Nov. 4.

GRIMM showed strong growth throughout the hour, increasing 12% among total viewers in its second half hour to peak with 2 million viewers. Head-to-head, GRIMM delivered more than two-and-a-half times more viewers than its nearest conventional competition at 8 p.m., A GIFTED MAN (590,000; Global/CBS), and 44% more viewers than the WORLD SERIES (1.07 million; Sportsnet). In the markets, GRIMM was the #1 non-sports program in its timeslot with total viewers and A18-49, and in Toronto won the day with ratings of 5.1 and 5.4 for A18-49 and A25-54, and a killer 5.9 for A18-34. The episode is available now for catch-up viewing at ctv.ca and spacecast.com.

On SPACE, 219,000 viewers tuned-in to the GRIMM premiere on Sunday night, making it the #1 program of the night on SPACE and the #1 non-sports specialty broadcast in its timeslot among adult viewers (A25-54 and A18-49). GRIMM airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on SPACE.

In the U.S., GRIMM debuted Friday at 9 p.m. on NBC to 6.5 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated (non-sports) Friday night broadcast since last New Year’s Eve and delivering the highest rating for a Friday scripted series in more than a year.*

In addition to the GRIMM premiere, CTV won every hour of core primetime (8-11 p.m.) on Friday among total viewers, A18-49 and A25-54 with encore episodes of CSI MIAMI and CSI NEW YORK delivering 1.34 million viewers at 9 p.m. and 1.42 million viewers at 10 p.m., respectively.

In this Friday’s episode, a barbaric family history is revealed when Nick and Hank investigate a case of breaking and entering. Meanwhile, Nick assigns Monroe to look after Aunt Marie. “Bears will be Bears” premieres Friday, Nov. 4 at 9 p.m. ET on CTV and Sunday, Nov. 6 at 9 p.m. ET on SPACE.