jPod, the quirky series based on Douglas Coupland’s novel of the same name, will not be returning to CBC, despite an extensive Internet campaign by a few of the show’s devoted fans.
So says CBC Television’s head of network programming, Kristine Layfield, in a wide-ranging interview with TV critic Alex Strachan:
“It’s a very loyal group,” Layfield acknowledged. “Absolutely people are passionate about certain shows. They feel strongly about them. And just because that show isn’t widely watched isn’t a factor with them. From my point of view, though, it’s just not conceivable for me to spend taxpayers’ dollars on things that only a small group of people want to see. [jPod] was an experiment. It was a great show. It had flashes of brilliance. Obviously, we believed it would be a mainstream success, or we wouldn’t have chosen to do it in the first place. Sometimes things don’t work out the way you hope, though.Television is not a formula. No one can say why one thing works and another doesn’t. These decisions are tough, but unfortunately they have to be made.That’s the nature of the business.”
Layfield noted that she cancelled Rumours last year, to catcalls of protest from that show’s small but loyal cadre of viewers. Rumours’ producer went on to help create Sophie. Had Layfield not done away with Rumours, she reasons, Sophie would never have happened, and CBC would still be showing a boutique comedy for a niche audience, instead of the mainstream hit Sophie has become.
In an opinion piece quite critical of the CBC’s new Fall schedule, Strachan says if he had Layfield’s job, he probably would not have cancelled the show.
Sure, the ratings were not what they could have been, but it was bounced around the schedule and was never really given a chance to reboot on its new day and time period. jPod was an audacious experiment, and like many audacious TV experiments, it faced a steep learning curve. It was unlike anything else on TV. And with a little patience and nurturing — the kind of patience and nurturing that kept Mad About You alive, and enabled Seinfeld to become a cultural sensation — it’s not hard to imagine that jPod could have become something unique and special, a show all Canadians could have been proud of.
Organizers of a campaign to bring jPod back acknowledge their campaign did not get the foothold they were hoping for. A recent “love-in” held in Vancouver was disappointing, organizer Miranda Mallison told InsideTheCBC.com. “The “Love-in” was a really sad showing.”
“Only four people besides myself came. I guess that’s the Facebook reality — or perhaps reality in general. If people aren’t committed in some concrete way, they assume it really doesn’t matter at all. Especially if they figure 100 other people will be there.”
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It’s true - a large commitment is required to get off the couch and protest something. Good for Miranda and the others for showing a commitment to Canadian TV!
And now, thanks to CBC, fans don’t have to leave the couch. CBC is rebroadcasting the first season of jPod in its entirety over the summer: Thursdays at 8pm, starting June 19!
So if you missed jPod the first time, now’s your chance to find out what all the fuss is about — and it’s a chance for fans to celebrate a fantastic first season!
New to jPod?
http://savejpod.ca/new-to-jpod/
Everytime I start liking a show it gets cancelled. I guess things Don’t change.
I just Really started liking “the border” and bought and watched the whole season 1 on Itunes. I really like it. I assume that means it is also on the chopping block?
Jpod was Good for the CBC. The younger audience just isnt used to tuning into the channel but the internet/torrents have made it quite a success but not according to the deeply flawed television ratings system who only seems to choose certain families.
I can only think that somewhere in a dark smoky conference with 70’s brown decor a group of executives monitor my internet comments and decide which shows to cancel based on what I like.
The Border got renewed, never fear.
And for reference, the Cabal meets in a torture chamber in the basement (or that’s what they think it is - it’s actually an old Air Farce set nobody got round to junking).
I am the host of a radio show called “This is Canada” on CILU FM in Thunder Bay. Last week I had David Kopp on the program as well as Miranda Mallison to discuss the cancellation of JPod and the success it has seen since.
Based on the feedback I got in the following days since the show aired, the people of Thunder Bay are largely upset with the cancellation of the show. Most citing it as the most Canadian program that CBC has had in decades!
Jpod was a breath of fresh air across the wasteland. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
It wasn’t my cuppa, but I’m still sorry to see this news.
sigh. as happy as I was to hear that cbc is getting an Fm frequency, this totally ruins it! I loved jPod. It was the only thing on CBC television i actually ever watched, besides hockey. I guess hockey is the only thing i’ll pay attention to now. (sigh)
The cancellation of jPod was very upsetting to me. Here is a show that could prove to be a strong example of brilliant Canadian programming for others to emulate. I think the main difficulty with jPod was with the crazy rescheduling and the fact that it was several times more convenient for viewers to watch online. I know that I did. I think the number of people who watched the show online compared to those that watched it while it was actually airing is probably considerably higher. It is sad to think that the shows popularity has sky rocketed since being canceled. If I thought I had a chance to save jPod, I could pull in at least a hundred more addicts (mostly from my high school, I think it’s a highly underestimated show and would definitely appeal to teenagers)
The trouble with JPod fans is that they can’t see past their noses, and yearn to live in some idealized world that acknowledges their self-deluded certainty that they are The Smarter Generation. When they’re far from it.
They won’t accept that JPod was sub par television, on many levels. And no one cared. I though it was perverse.
I understand the attraction to the show, exhibited by a small group of vocal fans, but they miss the point.
What you seek is fun television that portrays the world as you see it (or wish it were), one where marijuana is normal, geeks secretly rule the workplace, are cool and different and hip to everything, and sentences contain inside jokes using techno/internet references.
That show doesn’t have to be JPod.
And it doesn’t have to be written by Coupland, whose ideas work best in books.
All you really want is a few good jokes, some sexuality, in a world that you wish you were in. And especially something that seems real, and contemporary. Especially something that reflects YOU, and your neat friends.
That stuff is important, and sorely needed.
But it doesn’t necessarily have to be JPod that delivers it.
I did not feel comfortable with that cast. Most seemed so fake, in that I saw most of them as the actors that they are and not the characters they wanted to convince us that they were. It seemed fake. It was all a bit disturbing, and boring really.
What I think each of the JPod life-support group writers want is really just an entertaining program that more closely reflects the world they live in and enjoy.
They yearn more closely for a show like Friends or Seinfeld because these capture and reflect their lives, take the edge off, spoof contemporary mores, are clever, and persuade us that life is worth enduring.
And that’s the show you guys should all be fighting for.
Allan:
That is a very tellingly arrogant, defensive, and out of touch post.
-“The trouble with JPod fans is that they can’t see past their noses, and yearn to live in some idealized world that acknowledges their self-deluded certainty that they are The Smarter Generation. When they’re far from it. They won’t accept that JPod was sub par television, on many levels. And no one cared. I though it was perverse.”
The truth is that JPod was the most critically acclaimed show of the 4, and that anyone who is in touch with the lives and issues of young people today would have known within a few episodes that it was not only a very good show, but also a very important show. Its Facebook site exploded and accolades were all over the internet, including here, so the show’s brilliance was no secret. Its ratings were not the best of the 4 new shows but many of the best shows have started slowly in the ratings, because they are doing something new and breaking new ground and it takes more time for a broad audience to catch on. Seinfeld and Law & Order only two of these shows. JPod’s numbers weren’t terrible, however. In its first week JPod drew something like 4.5 million viewers, a good number. The next week it went up against the season debut of American Idol and everyone recorded JPod instead. The week after that, as I recall, it was moved to the most unfriendly spot in the lineup for its demographic and still about 300,000 were watching it as it on CBC. The truth is also that more than any of the 4 new CBC shows JPod fans were watching it on the internet and downloading torrents. This is what you would expect from the show’s demographic, and it’s the new reality and the future of the industry. If the CBC had any interest in serving the younger generation and living up to its mandate it would be adapting to this new reality. Unbelievably, however, I have seen CBC employees on this very board, including a certain writer for The Border, say that “if young people really wanted to save JPod then they should have watched it on television”. In other words, he is saying that if the younger generation won’t give up its technology and do things the way the older generation does them, then the CBC feels no obligation to them. The truth is, however, that it’s been eminently clear for many years now that the CBC doesn’t care at all about serving the gen X and gen Y audiences. (Take the case of The Hour, a terrible show hosted by an uneducated and generally completely unqualified host. It has drawn very small numbers for years, but has it been cancelled? No. It gets renewed in spite of the fact that it does not further the CBC’s mandate and has no chance of drawing a large, national, young, audience. It gets renewed because its host is a friend TBC management. The Toronto based make-work project for unqualified friends of CBC managers, The Hour, gets renewed, but the vastly superior and truly groundbreaking and culturally important BC based show, JPod, gets cancelled. This is how the CBC makes decisions these days.)
-“I understand the attraction to the show, exhibited by a small group of vocal fans, but they miss the point. What you seek is fun television that portrays the world as you see it (or wish it were), one where marijuana is normal, geeks secretly rule the workplace, are cool and different and hip to everything, and sentences contain inside jokes using techno/internet references.
That show doesn’t have to be JPod.
And it doesn’t have to be written by Coupland, whose ideas work best in books.
All you really want is a few good jokes, some sexuality, in a world that you wish you were in. And especially something that seems real, and contemporary. Especially something that reflects YOU, and your neat friends.
That stuff is important, and sorely needed.
But it doesn’t necessarily have to be JPod that delivers it.
I did not feel comfortable with that cast. Most seemed so fake, in that I saw most of them as the actors that they are and not the characters they wanted to convince us that they were. It seemed fake. It was all a bit disturbing, and boring really.”
Allan. What is very clear is that you understand very little. You really don’t get the show or the demographic at all, and your patronizing tone shows that you really don’t care either. You are trying to spin a rationalization that serves your purposes, that gives you an excuse to ignore what the generation that this show was directed at, and whose lives are reflect in it, is telling YOU. Your real interest here is in serving yourself and your friends, and nothing more.
-“What I think each of the JPod life-support group writers want is really just an entertaining program that more closely reflects the world they live in and enjoy.
They yearn more closely for a show like Friends or Seinfeld because these capture and reflect their lives, take the edge off, spoof contemporary mores, are clever, and persuade us that life is worth enduring.
And that’s the show you guys should all be fighting for.”
You continue to date yourself more and more. Is the Friends and Seinfeld era where you stopped growing and stopped paying attention to the issues of the younger generations? Is that when you sold out and started working the system instead of trying to serve the country and live up to your obligations to all Canadians, young and old, from coast to coast?
I’ll end the way you started, Allan. The trouble with you employees of the TBC is that you don’t care about doing you jobs anymore. You only care about paying off yourselves and your friends and neighbours, and you’ll defy the CBC’s mandate and sell out even the youth and culture of your country to do it.