In case you missed it, yesterday CBC-TV tried something new, and held its first “winter preview” of upcoming prime-time programs.
Previewed programs include immigration drama The Border, sitcom Sophie, Douglas Coupland’s jPod, lifestyle series The Steven & Chris Show, reality program The Week the Women Went, and the much-anticipated MVP – “a sexy look at a fictional NHL team of hunky players and the women who love them.”
Special programming includes The Englishman’s Boy, Project X, The Confidential Series, plus the returns of H2O, Test the Nation and Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister.
(Aside: I kept stumbling upon tidbits about the tapings of these shows back in July, when I last did this blog - including jPod, The Border and The Week the Women Went - so I’m looking forward to seeing them on air.)
Today’s Globe sees the lineup as an effort to attract “a younger, more female audience.” And the media has been quick to draw a correlation between CBC’s push and the ongoing American screenwriters strike. CBC executives admit there’s certainly an opening.
“All I see is opportunity - we have a shot,” head of network programming Kirstine Layfield told the Canadian Press. “People are going to be looking for something to watch, and I always find when people watch Canadian television, they are pleasantly surprised. It’s hard, it’s really hard, to make a mark and this is really going to help us.”
A day earlier, Layfield reported interest from U.S. networks in CBC programs . She confirmed that The Border was one of them. Westwind Production’s Mary Darling says Little Mosque on the Prairie is another.
But Writers Guild of Canada president Rebecca Schechter, who also had a hand in Little Mosque, said optimists like Darling are “dreaming in Technicolor.”
“It’s a weird pipe dream,” she said. “American giant conglomerates, they’ve not come across the border to Canada. They have consistently showed no interest in putting Canadian programming on American network television.”
The WGC plans to participate in an international display of solidarity on Nov. 28.
If you are really pining for American content, you’ll be able to get that on CBC too. According to CP, “CBC also said Tuesday it has acquired the rights to Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune from CBS Paramount International. Both shows will begin airing in September 2008.”
As for the Canadian stuff – well, the launch, and its fortuitous timing, managed to create a certain level of optimism. Prolific television blogger Denis McGrath, also a writer on The Border, had this to say of the event:
The impression I walked away with? When Layfield and the new regime started at CBC they took a lot of heat for saying they wanted to redefine and remake what the broadcaster was, and the kind of programming it did. This looks like a pretty vibrant schedule — it definitely has energy and a potential for big pop. I hope the stuff all works. It would be nice for CBC to get a win.
And if the WGA strike is still on, Canadians might actually get a chance to fairly sample their homegrown wares. It’s the best slate I’ve seen from CBC in a while.
What do you think of the winter lineup? Does the U.S. strike present an opportunity for CBC?
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| CBC Television, Little Mosque on the Prairie, MVP, Marketing/Promotion, The Media Landscape |
An opportunity for CBC to get viewers to watch its own product on its own channel, yes, if seized quickly and fiercely enough. I wouldn’t count on “substitution programming in the US” quite so much, because I’d rather it didn’t have the stigma it’s going to have under the present circumstances if that does go ahead.
And if we really want to push CBC stuff to our US friends, that’s what we’ve now got CBCShop for, right?
Ya ya, lots of sexy new shows. Sounding very American
What miffed me, watching online in Yellowknife, was the hosts saying “from Vancouver to St.John’s” SEVERAL times, leaving the north out of the mix. Hello….Canada goes from sea to sea TO SEA….& so does the CBC.
It will be interesting to see this new programming from CBC, especially since even before the writer’s strike CTV and Global were virtually unwatchable. I like the strange mix of entertainment, information/documentary, and Canadiana that CBC has been parading about recently.
But Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy? Hey, I’m all for injecting a little *quality* programming from foreign sources, but come on! Way to squander what little funding the CBC has!
I was shocked to see CBC buying the rights to Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. It’s one thing for CBC to buy rights to U.S. shows that differ from the usual fare on CTV, CanWest, Rogers, etc. channels (e.g. Arrested Development repeats), but to devote resources and time on the schedule to game shows that private broadcasters have been airing for years?!?
Honestly, I am becoming enraged at the thought of CBC wasting money and time by airing Wheel of Fortune.
Syndicated shows are generally pretty cheap. It would cost a lot more money to fill the slots with new Canadian shows. And with the CBC said shows are used to help drive traffic to the homegrown talent, and not just as filler between CSI- Sunglasses Of Justice episodes.
Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy?? Are you kidding me?? It’s hard to imagine two shows that contribute less to fulfilling the mandate of Canada’s public broadcaster. Indefensible. This mind-boggler plays perfectly into the hands of those axe wielding anti-culture warriors on Parliament Hill who want to chop up CBC like one of Dexter’s hapless victims and bury it at sea.
I could justify Jeopardy, easily, on educational grounds…although I could just as easily explain reviving Front Page Challenge for the modern age, now that I think of it.
Wheel of Fortune, though?
Interesting discussion of “The Women Went” on Rabble:
http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=24&t=001137
Martin
Judging by the adverts for Sophie, I won’t be watching it. For a show touted as a comedy, I’m not sure what is hilarious about a woman throwing a dagger at a man who has his back turned to her. Looks more like attempted murder and she should be locked up. We wonder why todays society is so violent. I suppose some would find it amusing, maybe the teens who allegedly microwaved the cat in Alberta.
Brian Eady says:
> I’m not sure what is hilarious about a woman throwing a dagger at a man who has his back turned to her. Looks more like attempted murder and she should be locked up.
I noticed the same thing, and could not agree more. Same thing, to a lesser extent, about the female hockey team owner (lotsa them around) who whips the towel off the sexy young male hockey player. Nothing funny if the roles were reversed tho, huh CBC? Guess two wrongs really do make a right, or more accurately, it’s “funny” any time “we” get to do it to “them”. But now, I’m over-sensitive, right???
Quoting Rebecca Schechter, “It’s a weird pipe dream,” she said. “American giant conglomerates, they’ve not come across the border to Canada. They have consistently showed no interest in putting Canadian programming on American network television.”
Everyone, including Canadians, dismisses Canadian television like a kneejerk reaction because they believe that Canadian television equates to lesser quality. This is why American television networks won’t broadcast Canadian television shows.