The plug has been pulled on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's new TV show after a single episode.

Sun News Network vice-president Kory Teneycke says Ford Nation was the highest rated program ever on the channel, grabbing 155,000 viewers when it first aired last night.

But he says despite the large viewership the show proved too costly to make, taking five hours alone to record and another eight to edit.

Ford co-hosted the hour-long program with his brother, Coun. Doug Ford.

The embattled mayor used much of the prerecorded program to defend himself against a city council uprising and talk up his re-election bid.

He had been hosting a weekly radio show on Toronto radio station Newstalk 1010, but that program was ended earlier this month upon mutual agreement between Ford and the station.

Ford remains defiant despite a series of unprecedented votes by councillors which have reduced his powers to ribbon cutting.

The mayor has admitted to binge drinking and to smoking crack while in what he called one of his "drunken stupors," but says he won't step down.