If you live in Toronto, you’ve probably seen this week’s issue of Eye Weekly, with its cover story on CBC-TV’s fall lineup. (“Surviving the fall”, the cover proclaims, and “Your Tube” inside – which are clever enough.)

Unfortunately, the cleverness ends there. Joshua Ostroff’s piece (which runs but a single page, with an opposing page of promos for new series) doesn’t really have much to say, other than the familiar argument that CBC is too safe, and should stop trying to be all things to all people.

He does have an interesting bit on the million-viewer question: what sort of reach should CBC-TV programs expect?

“When Da Vinci went on the air in ’98, I was hearing many of the same [ratings] arguments,” [Da Vinci’s Inquest creator Chris] Haddock says, noting that his first CBC series, Mom P.I., was cancelled in 1990 because it only got 900,000 viewers, numbers CBC would kill for nowadays.

That scribbly cover logo – which Ouimet points out is from the ‘70s, rotated, and has too many pieces – is certainly odd (there on the sidewalk, it looked a bit like a personalized picket sign from a year ago.)

The credibility issues persist inside, too – the author says that CTV news is hosted by Lloyd Bridges, and misspells the icon Pierre “Burton”. (You can have your citizenship revoked for that!)

(They’ve changed Lloyd to Robertson in the online edition, but not Berton. Didn’t he make snowboards?)

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	CBC Television, Media Coverage