CBC Television has cancelled three of its anchor dramas — jPod, Intelligence, and MVP.

In the case of jPod, it debuted on CBC-TV on Tuesday nights but, after disappointing ratings, was moved to Fridays — “traditionally a terrible night to draw an audience,” noted the Vancouver Sun. About 150 jPod cast and crew members are out of a job.

In a similar refrain as the producer of Intelligence, Larry Sugar, executive producer of jPod, said CBC did not adequately promote the show. “No other show was intended to meet the mandate of Canadian broadcasters than a show that was written by one of the great Canadian writers,” said Sugar. “To not fully support it is beyond me.”

It’s such a delicate balance. Do you throw promotional money into shows that are drawing low ratings, in order to try to increase ratings? Or is it the other way around? Where do you stand on the “CBC doesn’t promote its TV shows enough” debate?

(Ratings-wise, CBC Television broke viewership records with its 2007/2008 programming line-up. Our season-to-date prime-time share is 7.9, the highest in six years. In addition, Canadian content on the network increased significantly over the last two years, with drama series increasing 68 per cent on the network and comedy series up 41 per cent.)

There’s “no conspiracy,” says a CBC spokesperson about the negotiations underway with the executive producer of Intelligence.

The show, starring Max Headroom Matt Frewer, has been a critical success, but only reached moderate audience levels (averaging 250,000 viewers weekly). The show’s head, Chris Haddock, complained to the online news site TheTyee.ca that his show wasn’t being promoted well enough by the CBC.

…Haddock suspects that the low numbers are in part a useful problem deliberately created by those who have their own reasons to change how drama is done at the network. “Somewhere in the CBC someone is saying ‘do not promote this show.’”

“The question is why would they be so hostile to the show? I can’t for the life of me put my finger on it because it is broadly appealing and has had such success internationally.”

The CBC shot back, addressing Haddock’s comments, saying there are lots of shows that need promotion and there’s nothing sinister going on with the Intelligence promotion.

We’re disappointed he feels he’s not being adequately promoted (but at same time doubt there’s a producer in the history of show business who thinks their program HAS been adequately promoted). And with all due respect to Chris, his is not the only program in our schedule that requires promotion. I can tell you that the program has received significant promotion in both its first and second seasons. It will continue to do so through its season finale;

What do you think of the promotion of the show? Has it reached you?

P.S. Anonymous CBC management blogger “Ouimet” caught this sticker on the ground on Queen Street West promoting the second season.

Cool sticker.

I wonder if we cleaned up after them?

Another round in the fight over Intelligence: Today, Jeff Keay of CBC Communications sent a rebuttal to producer Chris Haddock’s claims that CBC “wants Intelligence dead”. “We have not yet made a decision as to whether we’ll continue with the show; when we do, Chris will be the first to know,” Keay said in response to what he called Haddock’s “attempts to negotiate through the media his relationship with the CBC.” According to Keay, CBC put significant resources into the show’s first season, and stuck with it despite low ratings.

Interesting piece in yesterday’s Toronto Star about tonight’s season finale of Intelligence, which may or may not be on its last legs with CBC.

Michael Wilson is a former U.S. intelligence operative who is now producing an American spy show (perhaps he’s waiting for his writers to come in from the cold….) Wilson wrote a letter to the Star about how informative and engaging Intelligence is.

The letter is a little odd - part ode to the show, part rant on U.S. political hegemony, and part a plea a for viewers for a fellow producer’s program. Here’s what he has to say about the finale:

You won’t need a spoiler alert for this next bit about Season Two, but Mary is about to be thrust onto the horns of a moral dilemma: do your job as a handler and protector of your country, but deal with the human cost of having that upper hand. If you’ve been following the story, you know our CSIS heroes and anti-heroes are fighting yet another egregious violation of Canadian sovereignty, this time from a CIA front. My advice to Mary echoes advice Haddock clearly channels from the collective spook unconscious: when you’re up against people whose job it is to break the law, previously of just the target country but increasingly the moribund, anachronistic concept of “international law,” your greatest skill may well be to lie like a f—ing rug.

It’s all here in the show: drugs, sex, money, betrayal, moles, smuggling, murder, money laundering, geopolitical stakes. But beyond just words, there’s an opportunity to immerse yourself in the distilled essence of the “Great Game” and decide if you want to play, and if so for which team? Choose, and watch.

The two-hour season finale of Intelligence runs tonight at 8:00 on CBC-TV.

Chris Haddock, producer of the widely acclaimed Intelligence drama, says he expects to be renewed by CBC Television. In an interview with Playback magazine, says “We’re a well-oiled fighting machine.”

Canadian Press reports that the CBC will put British drama Hustle in the prime-time slot formerly occupied by Intelligence, which received high praise from critics but has not yet been renewed for a second season.

“Hustle” has drawn an even more daunting assignment. It is up against the hottest U.S. import on Global’s prime time schedule: “House.” “Intelligence,” the Vancouver-based crime drama starring Ian Tracey (”Da Vinci’s Inquest”), which concluded its rookie run last week, got hammered by “House” all season. It routinely sank toward the 200,000 viewer mark, about a tenth the “House” audience.

Hustle was tested last summer on CBC and currently runs in the U.S. on the specialty-movie channel AMC.

Update: This post corrects an error suggesting that Hustle is an American program. Canadian Post still has not made the correction in their article.

This is pretty cool. The folks at CBC Television are posting a bunch of clips from the TV drama Intelligence and are inviting mashup and remix gurus to go at it to create a new promo. If they like yours you could win a MacBook Pro with Final Cut Studio (holy crap — when did we move from “you win a mug!!!” to this?! ) Even the honourable mentions will get a 30 GB iPod each.
     Here are the raw files and examples you’ll need.