The Gazette - December 31, 1985

"Anne has done it again - a new record for CBC"

The second part of CBC's Anne of Green Gables attracted the largest national audience ever for a Canadian-produced drama breaking the record set by the first part of the same show broadcast a day earlier, the network said yesterday.

Quoting figures gathered by the A.C. Nielsen Co. of Canada, CBC said about 5.8 million viewers watched the show on Monday, Dec. 2. Nielsen, which makes the projection based on a sampling, said about 56 per cent of all people watching English-language television in Canada at the time were tuned to Anne of Green Gables.

The show, based on the internationally loved children's story by L.M. Montgomery, also drew the most viewers of any program broadcast that week, edging usual favorite The Cosby Show of NBC.

The first-part of the mini-series - produced, directed and co-authored by Kevin Sullivan - had also topped Cosby in the previous ratings period and eclipsed Riel as the most-watched Canadian-produced drama. Riel had drawn 3.1 million people on April 15, 1979, but the first part of Anne drew 4.9 million.

Megan Follows starred as the high-spirited orphan girl of the title, who is adopted by a brother and sister living in a farmhouse called Green Gables near the fictional community of Avonlea, P.E.I.

Colleen Dewhurst played the stern Marilla Cuthbert, who is alternately exasperated and captivated by her young charge, while Marilla's gentle brother Matthew was played by Richard Farnsworth.

Source: The Gazette