Intelligence, jPod, and MVP cancelled: The “Promotion/Ratings” chicken-and-egg debate
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.)
March 10th, 2008 at 2:32 pm CDT
The unfortunate part is that CBC is cancelling both jPod and MVP, the two shows involved in the shuffle. Perhaps if they had left them alone, at least one of them could have gathered an audience.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:40 pm CDT
Well, I pretty much only watch the CBC so I thought there was adequate promotion: ads, snippets here and there, etc. I also get the e-newsletter from CBC. Perhaps that’s the problem, though. You have to already be very much plugged in to CBC in order to get the information…
March 10th, 2008 at 3:15 pm CDT
I’ve never seen a commercial for jPod on CBC, i found out about it because i liked the book..
I think promotion might have been a good idea, but at the very least - how is moving it to a less effective time slot going to improve ratings?
Sad to see it go, it was a great show.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:16 pm CDT
I would like to know how ratings are calculated. I know for myself and most of my tech friends, jPod was something we downloaded and watched on our own time.
It’s a shame to see innovative programming being canceled. More and more reason not to pay for cable.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:26 pm CDT
I think they ran too many promos for the latest new shows leading up to their premieres - to the point I got sick of them - but maybe not quite enough promotion outside of those promos (with Intelligence, it may have been the other way around). Then when the MVP/jPod time switch happened, it seems the CBC just about gave up on promoting them.
Then again, I thought the CBC would totally fumble on these shows from the get-go, so maybe it’s some marginal improvement. CBC’s promo work has often had a smell of awkwardness and desperation, but there have been glimmers of hope.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:29 pm CDT
I hope there’s still a chance to reverse the decision on Intelligence.
Think about it: Intelligence and The Border - Espionage Night in Canada.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:31 pm CDT
What’s missing is that both shows were not very well made.
Over acted and under produced - they were just not watchable. And I tried.
I was excited by the premises of both and to get a chance to fill my prime time with CanCon unassaulted during the writers strike, but they just were not good enough. Not at all.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:19 pm CDT
Just curious if anyone wants to suggest an explanation as to how ratings are higher overall but three shows are canceled. What shows accounted for the big success?
March 10th, 2008 at 5:30 pm CDT
As John Doyle aptly pointed out in today’s Globe, the CBC has to figure out it’s mandate when it comes to drama. Is it driven by ratings or quality (and the opportunity to provide a true showcase for Canadian talent)? Neither JPod nor MVP were of international quality. Intelligence on the other hand was. If CBC is not in the business of developing and showcasing the highest quality Canadian drama then it should stick to news, documentary and hockey all of which it does well and which provide a valuable service in return for it’s tax dollars.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:13 pm CDT
Why is it, every time I get into a new TV series, someone decides it is unpopular, and dumps it? Maybe Jpod is too Vancouver for a national audience. Regardless, I like it.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:44 pm CDT
Well, now I’m depressed. I really liked jPod. Screw the CBC heads for drowning it before it was even swimming.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:26 pm CDT
I think that CBC did an adequate job of promoting some shows, but not others. The shows which premiered this season got (& still get) a fair amount of promotion, but other returning shows have not. I’m referring specifically to "Intelligence". I watch CBC regularly & found out the season premiere date for season 2 thru a newspaper column. I recognize that new shows are always going to be promoted heavily initially, but returning shows also need promotion. "Little Mosque" has rec’d quite a bit of promotion so I don’t understand why CBC did not promote "Intelligence" to the same degreee.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:52 pm CDT
I watched the first episode of MVP and thought it was ridiculous, so I stopped watching. I don’t think scheduling could have saved that one.
March 10th, 2008 at 8:25 pm CDT
Ask them how jpod did online. It’s main target was torrenting and streaming it in decent numbers I bet.
I won’t miss MVP. But a show by Doug Coupland deserved a couple of seasons to grow. Since when do shows emerge in a single year?
March 10th, 2008 at 9:51 pm CDT
I would tend to agree that they don’t do enough to support new shows, though they are admittedly facing a challenge simply because they can’t reach the eyeballs that are elsewhere watching CSI. (Plus I’m not sure the one promo spot per show would be sufficient to get someone to remember to watch.) Would Little Mosque have succeeded had it not received the external attention it did? That was a good amount of free publicity–could they figure out other ways of reaching people without spending as much money?
The jPod Facebook group has a lot of comments in the past few days. Three of the cast (plus Kam Fong himself) have even posted. Those new community features on cbc.ca are getting a workout, too: 94 comments as of right now. A large number mention the Friday evening timeslot they put it in.
I do hope they manage to get the CBC’s attention. It seems as though they didn’t get as much of a chance to prove themselves as was deserved, and that’s disappointing.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:44 pm CDT
At the end of the day the CBC continues to rely to heavily on ad sales of hockey and does not have the finesse or intelligence to approach media sales in a way that will cultivate shows like JPOD or MVP . You can’t sell a civic the way you see a BMW and the sales department at the network doesn’t understand this. And what suffers? Also you can’t program a network assume that on Thurs night you are going to beat the big 3. This is alternative programming that has a audience. There is potential to sell it. Time that Stursburg starts to reconsider his approach. MVP was not a great show but it was not a bad show. There was revenue there.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:28 pm CDT
Talk about mixed blessings. I was praying for MVP to fail. Too bad JPod had to go down with it.
March 11th, 2008 at 12:56 am CDT
in regards to what turtles said, I wonder if the CBC takes into account torrent and other P2P downloads? I download most of my cbc shows as I’m never home in time to watch them, and bunny-ears don’t give you too many choices. With seed & leech numbers on mininova and newtorrents in the thousands for the latest episodes, maybe its time the CBC starts thinking of new ways of content sharing? Sad to see a decent show hit the drains.
March 11th, 2008 at 1:16 am CDT
These shows received a lot of promotion, they just weren’t very good. I tried jPod and MPV and could not get into them. MPV was stupid and unreal, jPod too had no basis in reality either. The stories and characters were just not very compelling.
If you want to talk about a show that was not promoted hardly at all then its "The Week the Women Went". That show received next to no promotion but it became a hit anyway. I didn’t watch it because I never knew when it was on. So there you go.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:04 am CDT
I love how The Citizen and the Leader Post had a story about how great jPod is two days before it was canceled. I think the CBC just needs to have confidence in their dramas - so much good stuff gets canceled just as it’s catching on. Trying to be popular is never going to work - nor is it the CBC’s mandate. It’s through the specific that you touch on universal themes. Why are Little Mosque and Corner Gas so popular? Because they had the guts to just be themselves - and people anywhere can identify with that.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:10 am CDT
So, jPod gets canceled but Sophie doesn’t?! Don’t get me wrong, Sophie’s not bad, but jPod was vastly better. As for MVP, I could care less…
But please, CBC, bring back jPod!
March 11th, 2008 at 8:20 am CDT
You can’t swing a dead cat in downtown Vancouver without bumping into a jPod poster, or advertisement, or some form of promotion. Commercials were airing on both radio & TV seemingly every 15 minutes before its debut.The show struck me as not that well written: quirky for the sake of being quirky, and not well tied together. Kind of like…most Douglas Coupland books, really. I just don’t think it worked on TV (I think it works intermittently on paper, FWIW.)Intelligence was no DaVinci’s Inquest, and more of a DaVinci’s City Hall. The former was extremely well written and acted, and Haddock was at the top of his game. The latter was less so: it was preachy and political and the writing was confusing and getting lost in itself.Watching Intelligence was watching Haddock trying to be too clever by half, and I’m not surprised to see it go. The Border may have more of a cheese factor, but that’s probably what makes it work better for a television audience.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:32 am CDT
I am really upset with CBC for pulling JPod, it is in my opionion one of the best shows on Canadian TV. Douglas Coupland is an amazing writer, his concept for JPod was unique, funny and original. There is nothing else like this on television right now and there never has been. I must admit to being slightly biased, as I loved the book Jpod (and everything else ever written by the author) but what I want to know is with critically acclaimed shows like Dexter making it(Dexter is also based on a book) then why can’t JPod. I honestly think that JPod is better then Dexter. On a serious note, I will now be boycotting CBC because if a show this good can’t make it then nothing will, I am not investing in a new show by CBC for them to pull it once I am hooked again. I think that CBC dropped the ball by not advertising this program enough and by not supporting the show with enough publicity, also I think it would have been worth giving it a second season; I mean what other programming does CBC have to appeal to the youth market or the young adult market, nothing that comes to my mind. By the way I am additionally pissed because at this point CBC seems to be keeping Sophie which I think is a horrible, sad, pathetic premise for a show. It sickens me that a light fluff-fest like Spohie will be kept over a funny, edgy show like JPod.
I seriously hope some major executives at CBC are getting fired over this. No longer a loyal viewer.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:35 am CDT
Some fine commentary on the blog for this important story, so I’ll keep my comments to the point.
Under the Stursberg regime, CBC Television has lost a Design department, Costume department, Props department, International Sales department [as of March 31st], and a Communications department. By closing these sections of the production wing, it no longer became a producer and became a buyer. Therefore, there was no personal and artistic commitment behind the creators of CBC programs.
This created a disposable environment where an unsuccessful program is quickly dropped, due exclusively to ratings, in order to try something else. In my opinion, until the CBC makes a real commitment to Drama, much like they did with a Drama Department years ago, this is how it’s going to be until they pursue ideas and not ratings.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:06 am CDT
I am mourning the loss of Jpod. I strongly believe that given better promotion and keeping the show in its Tuesday time slot would have resulted in stronger ratings. Moving the show to Fridays was the kiss of death. There was no effective promotion advertising the show’s time slot change. CBC had set the show up to fail, then left it to die on Friday nights. Poor ratings in this time slot were unavoidable, on account of very few of the Jpod target audience would be at home on a Friday evening watching television. If anything, Jpod viewers would be watching the show online, rather than watching the show Friday evenings. The show truly needed the opportunity to grow and find its niche. As in many first seasons of countless other television shows the characters were somewhat underdeveloped, but to brand this show as over acted is incorrect. Clearly this show was a parody, and the characters were caricatures of office-types in a creative industry based in Vancouver. It is possible that this may have initially caused confusion and disinterest in the hockey-loving, double double-consuming general public; however, the show was not allotted ample time to form a following and win over viewers given its poor time slot and invisible promotion.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:28 am CDT
Does the CBC forget the old fogies who’ve been watching nothing but the CBC for the last 70 years will be dead soon, and it’ll be up to a new generation to continue to generate revenue?
I think Coupland and Sugar should say screw the CBC and keep making JPod and offer it up on YouTube or sell it on a per episode basis through iTunes, because lets face it, it’s marketed to the tech savvy, and we’re more likely to download it to an iPod anyway.
The CBC has saturated the airwaves with commercials for “Sophie” and everytime I see it, I change the channel. Everything about that show makes me cringe. As for MVP, I was never all that interested anyway.
Forget the secret lives of hockey wives… how about the real lives of military wives? Little more drama there.
I can only hope the CBC changes its mind (not something the corporation does I know) and be satisfied with reading all of Coupland’s books during the hour I had carved out of my Friday night to watch the show.
March 11th, 2008 at 12:57 pm CDT
I’m done with watching CBC original programs…all they do is cancel them in their first season.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:36 pm CDT
I am an older person who will be sorry to see JPod go. It is a very entertaining show. I will also really miss the return of Intelligence. Interesting that both shows cancelled are Vancouver-based shows. Interesting that both shows present a more, shall we say, West Coast attitude toward marijuana. If the CBC is not about niche market programs that require some intelligence to appreciate, the CBC does not deserve our tax money. Any station can show stuff like Sophie, which seems to get a bigger audience despite being really dumb (I mean both Sophie the character and Sophie the show). It takes a national public broadcaster to support shows like DaVinci’s Inquest, Intelligence, and JPod.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:36 pm CDT
Aw, I love jPod! I’m sad to see it go… It took me a while to find it after they moved it to Fridays… Unfortunate.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:46 pm CDT
I’m truly disppointed that both shows have been cancelled. I found them entertaining, for their respective uniqueness. In order to build up an audience and the loyalty that comes with it, programmes need support for more than one short season, which is why I think that CBC Television decision’s is wrong. Complaints need to be sent to the CBC!
March 11th, 2008 at 5:47 pm CDT
I’m truly disppointed that both shows have been cancelled. I found them entertaining, for their respective uniqueness. In order to build up an audience and the loyalty that comes with it, programmes need support for more than one short season, which is why I think that CBC Television’s decision is wrong. Complaints need to be sent to the CBC!
March 11th, 2008 at 9:59 pm CDT
jPod should be saved!
March 12th, 2008 at 1:03 am CDT
I am too at loss at the cancellation of JPOD. I can not remember the last time I actively followed the a CBC series. The show was witty and well written. I hope the CBC reconsiders this terrible decision. 07/08 is the first time in memory that the CBC had almost a quality well rounded prime-time lineup. What a shame. If nothing else, I hope a broadcaster like showcase picks up Jpod and proves what a terrible mistake the CBC has made.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:55 am CDT
You know, my friends and I absolutely loved MVP. It was a steamy drama that was perfect for taking you away from the "real world" Each show was absolutely action packed, and was fantastic. This was the only CBC show we have ever STAYED HOME to watch. They finally produced a seductive drama worth watching. Sure I watch Sophie, The Border etc. But sometimes I want a show to take me away from all of that. And MVP did, and had they actually advertised it I know that there would be more people in love with it like myself and my friends.
The only reason we EVER ended up watching it was because I stumbled accross it. I never ever saw it advertised once. It is almost as if CBC just isn’t trying. Why throw all of that money into a show only to not promote it?
I want more.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am CDT
I can’t believe they are cancelling one of the best shows on TV. It wasn’t given a chance to be viewed by enough people. There is not usually too many choices of shows to watch on CBC but this was one excellent show.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:56 am CDT
MVP was one of the best shows on TV ( American or Canadian) You didn’t give it a chance …………..
March 12th, 2008 at 1:27 pm CDT
I’m still angry about the This is wonderland being canceled.
March 12th, 2008 at 2:29 pm CDT
I’m glad to see the insufferable MVP get deep-sixed; however, cancelling jPod & Intelligence just makes me furious. Compared to some of the American content being shown on Canadian networks, these two uniquely home-grown Canadian progams managed to catch my jaded viewing attention. Intelligent, unpredictable, Vancouver-centric, full of Canadianisms, high quality production, great acting, edgy complex plots - geeze, what’s not to like for any thinking Canuck? I find Intelligence engrossing, and jPod makes me laugh out loud and it has some growing buzz. Are they perfect programs? No, but better than alot of other stuff out there. If necessary, CBC could have made meaningful incremental changes to each program without junking the projects entirely. I think CBC has acted too hastily. It needs to nurture dramas such as these with sufficient time and resources before it can achieve the larger domestic audience that it apparently seeks. Heck, the Beachcombers ran forever, why not jPod and Intelligence? My jPod-loving twelve year old could have done a better programming job simply by keeping the Tuesday night jPod slot. I sincerely hope CBC management reconsiders its decisions and keeps both programs. No wonder Fox is grabbing Haddock to "rework" Intelligence. Fox knows a hit when they see one.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:12 pm CDT
I found out about MVP from a website ad and was surprised I found it at all. To say that it was overacted is stating the obvious but I also can’t remember the last time I tuned into a CBC drama. I have to admit, while noting certain actors lack of emoting ability, I still enjoyed watching it for what it was… a fluffy, goofy, soap opera. Shame it was cancelled, as for once I was willing to watch a Canadian tv show, even if it wasn’t up to international standards.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:41 pm CDT
jPod was different - polarizing maybe, not cut from the "Road to Avonlea/Pit Pony/Wind At My Back" cloth, but certainly new and fun to watch. It actually reached the audience the CBC claims to be desperate to attract too, if the numerous blog reactions, "Save jPod" web site and various Facebook groups are any indication.
March 12th, 2008 at 4:15 pm CDT
Gotta agree with Dwight. I think CBC really missed the boat by not pairing up "Intelligence" with "The Border." I think part of the problem with CBC’s programming is that there just doesn’t seem to be a cohesive thread. It still feels a bit like a scattershot "trying to be all things to all people" approach..
I also can’t imagine what they were thinking, moving "Intelligence" to the Monday night timeslot opposite "Corner Gas." If the intention really was to try to beef up viewing numbers, then why schedule it in the same timeslot as the highest-rated scripted Canadian show? Seems like a thinly veiled attempt to bury the show. (In fact, "The Border" would probably do better on a different day.) Wasn’t "Intelligence" on Friday nights last year? For me, that’s a better night because the competition from other networks isn’t quite so intense.
March 12th, 2008 at 7:18 pm CDT
jpod was comedic genius, unfortunately the cbc didn’t recognize the cult hit they helped create for what it is.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:07 pm CDT
Corry: I wish that we’d gotten at least a wrap-up to the dangling plotlines of This is Wonderland. A fourth season would’ve been even better still.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:15 pm CDT
I am really disappointed to see MVP get cancelled. Hopefully there could be some reconsideration in keeping it on. For once CBC has me watching, but if it gets cancelled you can bet that I won’t be back. Its a shame that a good show has to go.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:21 pm CDT
I can’t believe that MVP is getting cancelled seeing it get shot in London was terrific and that being a canadian show was even better. I never watch CBC but now I have no reason because the rest of the shows are not that good. So CBC you lost another viewer.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:12 pm CDT
It took two shows but i got hooked on MVP. I thought the writing was great. Thecharacters were over the top but they all had parts of people you know someone in there. I guess they won’t be back because they wound up most of the threads in the last show. It might be fun to see how Evelyn and tass? manage the team, though. Hard to believe I was the only one watching. And if I missed n episode I watched it online and have seen them all two or three times.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:57 am CDT
I’ve seen plenty of promotion for jPod, but I don’t remember ever seeing anything for Intelligence. I didn’t know there even was a show on CBC called Intelligence :/ And I watch a fair bit of CBC.
yikes.
March 13th, 2008 at 8:34 am CDT
MVP is top quality! Right up there with it’s US counterparts. It’s too bad that CBC can’t back Canadian shows that are actually good. Cancelling after 1 season is disgraceful. Why not give the show a chance!
March 13th, 2008 at 11:42 am CDT
Yes, MVP was shallow, but was it meant to be perceived otherwise?
It was offered for entertainment purposes and it delivered in my opinion. I for one will miss this show that did not take itself seriously and did not pretend to be something other than what it was: a fun and flashy show. And on CBC to boot!
March 13th, 2008 at 3:13 pm CDT
I am really disappointed with the cancellation of jPod. It has become one of my favourite shows and the first time I have regularly followed a CBC television series that was not news or current events. A very short sighted decision for CBC to make.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:03 pm CDT
I hated jPod at first but forced myself to give it a chance - like most things on CBC. I was surprised they cancelled it as soon as I was starting to like it a bit. It wasn’t based on reality and it wasn’t all the funny but it seemed to be going somewhere. I guess it was likely targeted to a younger generation. (I’m 33).
MVP was stupid and seemed to be trying too hard to be a Desperate Housewives for Canada.
I never watched Intelligence and I haven’t seen The Border. They both looked too mainstream or too much like "24" which doesn’t appeal to me.
CBC: give your shows a chance! Make some better shows while you’re at it. We’re tired of late 1800’s/early 1900’s mini-series about the old West and the Anne of Green Gables type of garbage.
I believe in the CBC but the content of some programs and the poor line-ups really make it hard to watch some days. Why is Coronation Street on right after the news in prime time? Way to drop viewers. Apparently people watch it but WHO? Retirees? Why not spawn a new channel, one that is targeted to the under 55 crowd? Doesn’t MuchMusic have 3 channels now and they have worse content! Or make better content for online distribution only like a poster recommended above.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:29 pm CDT
CANCELLED Are you kidding me - I never watched CBC prime time tv until I began to watch MVP - the eppys are the best - especially last weeks show with Molly being found - this show was finally into bloom - many of my girlfriends at work would talk about the show the following day at work and we luved it -I’ll never get into another CBC show because looks what has happened - did you even give these shows a fair chance - I’d say NOT - shame on you for not doing more to promote these shows and then pulling the plug - MVP was really and I mean really well written.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:46 pm CDT
I am going to miss jPod. It was my favorite show on TV. It sucks getting into a show to see it cancelled after only 1 season. All management cares about are ratings and revenue… doesn’t anyone see the benefit of attracting younger viewers to CBC? jPod was a nice alternative to the mindless american junk that plays on everywhere else.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:13 am CDT
INTELLIGENCE - Best show on TV anywhere…hands down!!! Gritty, well written, not another cookie-cutter ‘american-style’ crime drama (The Border could learn from Intelligence, don’t need the cheesy, goofball tech-guy; loose the over-the-top boobs hanging out CIA chick….so CSI, so American). Reconsider CBC, after all it is us taxpayers who foot the bill!!!
March 14th, 2008 at 10:14 am CDT
It’s pathetic that CBC would cancel Intelligence. I pretty well only watch CBC or I look to television from the UK to entertain me. I’m certainly finding less and less reason to keep CBC Television on my watch list or be supportive of it in public.
You can keep The Border - it is truly dumb shlock. For my money jPod was unfunny and unbelievable and MVP was unwatchable because I just didn’t care about the premise or the characters.
Intelligence was gritty and realistic without the plastic cutout characters TV is famous for and the storylines were germane to what is really happening in our world.
I hope CBC reconsiders this.
March 14th, 2008 at 11:17 am CDT
I enjoy watching Canadian television and was excited when CBC launched its new line-up. I tried watching both JPOD and MVP. I didn’t understand the concept of JPOD at all, it was confusing to me and I thought MVP was a watered down version of the British show Footballers wives. So, I’m not surprised by the cancellation of either show.
March 14th, 2008 at 1:19 pm CDT
I am really annoyed with the cancellation of jPod… is it because we are incapable of being entertained when god forbid there is a story line other than a crime scene investigation? I think jPod was/is brilliant and it is the first time in years that I was laughing out loud while watching TV. Come on, this has all the making of a cult hit, -please don’t cancel it!!!
March 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm CDT
I’m one of those torrent downloaders. I would have watched Intelligence legitimately if it had been offered to me in the US. I really liked it, and was very disappointed to see it has been canceled. I didn’t know about the other shows mentioned, jPod and MVP, or I probably would have been watching them too. I just happened onto an ad for Intelligence, and was hooked with the first episode. I find so much more realism in the characters than in the US procedural crime/cop dramas. If any posters have other suggestions for me, leave a follow up.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:04 pm CDT
As a 30 year old Female I enjoyed MVP…it was a soap opera for real people instead of stick people….yeah it was unbelieveable….it is a soap opera!
If I missed it I always caught it on-line….for me the timeslot was too late on Tuesdays…..Besides HNIC, MVP was the only CBC show I watched. I will be sad to see it go without a series finale.
Truthfully I never watched jPOD…no interest for me there.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:54 pm CDT
MVP best show on cbc and you drop it !! geezzzz give it a chance man this is canada not USA you get somthing that good you stick with it man I dont even like hockey and I love it,great acting great directing writing wow wake up…..
March 14th, 2008 at 5:18 pm CDT
I can’t believe they cancelled "Twitch City"!
March 14th, 2008 at 11:39 pm CDT
Watching jPod tonight just fuels my disappointment that it was so hastily cancelled. Moving it to Friday’s was a horrible decision, even High School Marketing students know about Target Audience, why on earth would it be aired when jPod’s biggest demographic is most likely not at home?! My teenage son used to watch it with my Husband and I on Tuesdays’, now I record it for him as it’s in the "Friday Night Death Slot". I feel like they purposely threw it under the bus.
CBC also offered full episodes on their website, did they ever try and guage how many were watching it online? After all, if you missed it Friday Night because you were out, that’s where you’d catch it.
jPod was all Canadian, brilliantly written, well acted, and had an equally impressive production value. Having Douglas Coupland involved was genious. Translating a book to television can be a very rough ride, and he pulled it off famously.
"Podsters" are furious with the CBC, as evident from the http://www.savejpod.ca website, petitions, and facebook groups all trying to appeal to the powers that be at CBC. Some stories have surfaced about the lack of ad revenue sure to be lost from Canadian NHL teams not making the play-offs being the culprit fot the cruel cut. But in my opinion, the blame lays squarely on the shoulders of the CBC. They changed the timeslot, they did not promote it like Sophie, (which by the way, I’d rather gouge my own eyes out than watch, and I am probably what they would call their perfect target, a 30 something Stay at Home Mom) and they could have had Alan Thicke, who is stellar in this role, all over the Canadian Television Promotional Circuit. They also missed out on countless sponsorship opportunities, Dell being the most obvious one as their computers are featured prominantly in the show.
Vancouver may have been plastered with jPod posters, but here in TO I saw nary a one. In fact, the only reason any of my friends knew about jPod was because I told them about it, as a fan of Mr. Coupland.
It’s not like the CBC has younger Canadians lining up in droves to watch their programming, you would think they would give jPod a little more than a month and a half to find it’s feet. Especially at a time when many people had somewhat abandoned their TV’s during the Writer’s Strike.
Contrary to popular belief, not all Canadians are American television watching sheep grazing on "Reality" driven tripe sure to knock ones IQ down a few notches. I was so impressed with the CBC for finally giving those of us not from the Tommy Hunter era a wonderful reason to tune back in again. Other than Coach’s Corner and RMR, I haven’t watched one show on the CBC since the original Kids of Degrassi Street aired. Not even Little Mosque on the Prairie was enough to entice me, as I find all that show does is make Canadians look like fumbling clueless dolts.
I know in the grand scheme of things waxing on about a cancelled television show may seem trivial, but my time is valuable and I must choose how I spend it wisely. Jpod is worthy, and every week I look forward to that 1 hour of wildly entertaining television.
Which begs the question, if jPod is not good enough for the CBC, and they can’t bring in younger viewers, then where do they think they will find themselves in a few years to come when most of their older demographic has passed on to greener pastures? Sophie is no Don Cherry, and the "Google Generation" may very well hurt from the sting of cancellations so much that the CBC will not draw ratings, but contempt. It’s a brave new Tech-driven world, and cancelling jPod may go down as one of the worst decisions in the history of Canadian Television.
March 15th, 2008 at 2:28 am CDT
I’m really tired of tv networks canceling good tv shows based on the outdated notion of ratings. Especially since the target audience doesn’t even bother with standard broadcast tv anymore. After this sort of stupditiy of canceling a show before 10 episodes have aired and changing the air date, it’s no wonder that we don’t want what the suits keep spoon feeding us.
jpod was a brilliant book and while the TV show needed some getting used to, it was still a damn good show.
March 15th, 2008 at 7:31 pm CDT
Count my husband and I as two more people who will miss JPod. The show was clever, outrageous, smart and a whole lot of fun. I know some people have said maybe it’s too westcoast, but we’re in Ontario and it still caught our interest.
March 15th, 2008 at 8:16 pm CDT
I saw plenty of promo for these shows, on the CBC, on buses, in the subway, in newspapers…I was really enjoying Jpod. Then the (now) almost predictable yank of the rug: just as I was wanting more, it inexplicably moves to a night when I’m not able to catch it. Why has CBC Television become so bent on destroying its own programming with flippant rescheduling? It’s distressing - I strongly suspect the CBC is doing significant damage to our film and television industry by making it so cumbersome and confusing for Canadian audiences to become familiar with their own content…
March 16th, 2008 at 1:30 am CDT
This thread is a really interesting example of the limits of the internet as a tool to measure prevailing opinion.
To read this thread, you’d think CBC had canceled shows that were drawing huge audiences. But to a one, the shows that were renewed were getting two to three times the audience of the three canceled shows.
In order to "give a show a chance to grow" you need to actually see evidence that that’s, you know, gonna happen.
The complaints here are out of step with not just TV viewing, but CBC tv viewing. I had to laugh at the critique of Coronation Street. Believe me, friend, your critique of that show is way off base. There isn’t a TV writer or producer in the country who wouldn’t give their eyeteeth for the loyal, consistent numbers Corrie Street gets "after the news."
For all the demands for greater eclecticism, there is a pure and incontrovertible fact: CBC is a publicy funded trust.
Would that MVP and JPOD and Intelligence had found their audiences, all would be well. But they didn’t. CBC is not a charity. Sometimes serving your audience means crafting shows they want to watch — and accepting when you’ve missed the mark.
In a sense, if you’re complaining here, you’re not even really mad at the CBC. You’re really mad at the audience who watches the CBC.
Because they didn’t want to watch what you wanted to watch.
Oh, and JPOD fans, maybe more of you should have laid off the torrents, and watched the show off air.
Just sayin.
March 16th, 2008 at 6:54 am CDT
Both jPod and Hockey Wives were advertised heavily. That’s not the problem. I just can’t justify watching canadian dramas when there is something better playing on another channel. And, lets face it, "Hockey Wives" is basically "White People Only" show.
Last time I checked, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal, which is like half of the country’s population, isn’t all white and Soccer is actually the #1 sport in Canada — not hockey. But when the CBC is headed by unilingual, unicultural, ungendered rich old boys club, this is the kind of stuff you get.
March 16th, 2008 at 1:02 pm CDT
Re: "To read this thread, you’d think CBC had canceled shows that were drawing huge audiences. But to a one, the shows that were renewed were getting two to three times the audience of the three canceled shows."
That may be true, but it’s also true that now we’re in a very different corporate culture dictating what stays and what goes than we were just a few years ago. It wasn’t so long ago that shows that were struggling in the ratings were given a fighting chance to actually *build* an audience, rather than simply dropping them. Remember how "Seinfeld" struggled its first season and was barely renewed by NBC, only to eventually find and build a massive audience?
I’m not saying that would happen with these shows, but at least these shows *do* have an established audience, and it’s something on which CBC could build. Instead, they’re reinventing the wheel yet again and could just as easily fail to miss the ratings mark *again* with new shows.
If only shows that knocked it out of the ballpark crack off the bat, ratings-wise, were renewed, then we’d never have seen a whole lotta shows that ended up being success stories. I’m thinking that "Law & Order" (ironically, another NBC series) didn’t do so well in its first few years, but the network kept giving it a chance, and also tweaked the casting a bit to give it more of a universal appeal, and now that show is in its 18th season.
I’m wondering what the ratings were for "Da Vinci’s Inquest" its first year. Of course, no matter the ratings, Haddock has said that it was a struggle every year to get that show renewed. So ratings can’t be all there is to it.
March 16th, 2008 at 5:52 pm CDT
Re: Sue Deschene’s comment.
Actually, "Davinci’s Inquest’s" ratings in its first few years were the best they ever were. At one time it got over a million viewers. It steadily declined throughout its run. So it’s not really a "Seinfeld-like" example of letting a show grow.
Also — and this is the key thing — there is a BIG difference between a show that starts low in ratings and steadily grows, and a show that starts out with a high rating and declines.
Momentum and direction are important. When the trend is in the bad direction, it’s much, much harder to resist that slide. It means you have been ACTIVELY REJECTED by a lot of the viewing public. Both Intelligence (which I loved) and J-Pod, (which I thought was flawed, but promising) never reached the highs they drew with their premiere, andworse, they kept falling.
Little Mosque, for contrast, premiered huge for all the hype, lost 50 percent of their crazy huge, curious premiere audience — but then settled. 2 million watched the premiere, but the ratings settled around 1 million.
then the show came back in the fall against tough competition and was off for the first few months, but built back up to that natural million audience.
There are times when the numbers really aren’t that hard to interpret. It may be hard for JPOD fans and MVP fans and Intelligence fans to accept — but the numbers weren’t that hard to interpret.
So it goes.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:13 am CDT
I’m so sad that Intelligence is leaving. I think it’s the best Canadian show and one of the best shows period. It’s a real shame that CBC won’t keep it. I don’t understand how ratings are gathered anyway, so it just feels vindictive on CBC’s part. (Do people have ratings boxes? I’ve never seen one.)
March 17th, 2008 at 9:42 am CDT
Cancelling Intelligence… that just about sums it up.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:48 pm CDT
I can’t believe CBC would do something like this. Ironic how the little note at the bottom said that viewership records were broken this season and yet they still must cancel these shows. jPod was my favourite CBC show since Road to Avonlea. So now what are they going to put in its place? A crappier show I’m sure that they’ll continue to air. Shame CBC, shame.