CBC 08 and 22 Too!
JUST A SHORT one to say that I've just returned from CBC's cavernous broadcast centre on Front Street, where they held their winter launch event. Hosts Steven Sabados and Chris you know that other guy who is not a Designer Guy but used to be stepping up and doing a soft shoe for their new daytime show that premieres Jan 14. I guess this is the next generation of Gill Deacon. Only, you know...fabulouser.
Things really got hopping when Network poohbah Kirstine Layfield came out to run down the drama offerings for the winter.
Now, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that I have a dog in that hunt. Besides the Monday January 7th premiere of The Border (whose fabulous cast members James McGowan, Graham Abbey, and Nazneen Contractor were in the audience,) Layfield also presented a total of twelve new shows premiering on the National Broadcaster this winter.
And I gotta say, the trailer made them look pretty spiffy. The sexiest was MVP - the long rumored show about Hockey Wives that looks like it's gonna take a bunch of sex and spunk, mix it up with a hip soundtrack and throw it on...Friday nights? Ruh row.
But seriously, the trailer made it look fun and frothy. And it could work. I mean, it's Canada. It's cold. We stay home in the winter, right? Right? I kid, but I'm actually really looking forward to this series a lot. Some great actors who deserve a breakout: Kristin Booth, Deborah Odell, Lucas Bryant...
I have an O.C. shaped trashy guilty pleasure viewing slot that's still wide open from this season. Come on, MVP, fill it with Hockey and fornication! (Premieres January 11 at 9pm)
J-Pod (shout out to my writer peeps the Double D's -- Daegan and Dennis!) bows Tuesday January 8 at 9pm. I thought it was a comedy, but the press release describes it as a "quirky drama series." Hmmm. Quoi? Allan Thicke was there. Allan Thicke, people. Don't tell me he's quirky drama. That man is pure. fucking. comedy. And I was, like, three feet away from him.
Sophie (Wed January 9 at 8:30 pm) is harder to judge, since the clips seemed to be from a premise pilot. "Sophie Parker, a beautiful, ambitious and very pregnant young woman visits a psychic on a whim. After a brief consult with the universe and some chicken bones, the psychic fearfully breaks the news...that this will be the most horrible year of her life, and just when she hits rock bottom her troubles will have only just begun." Well, she loses her boyfriend, best friend, her business is threatened and the baby comes...
...and uh, I guess, then comes episode two and the rest of what the show's about.
Some nice actors in this one, too. Nathalie Brown (Sophie) has the look and presence of a star. But this production, like the stillborn Rumours, is based on a Quebec comedy (from the same company that made Rumeurs, actually.) Let's hope Sophie clicks where the first show fell short. Mosque could use a playmate on Wednesday.
There were also two movies that really caught my eye. I wasn't the biggest fan of Paul Gross' H20 (I thought the 2nd half fell apart a bit in the logic department) but he's back with a sequel called the Trojan Horse, and DAMN if it doesn't look like some heap big intriguey fun. Killer trailer. I won't say more. When CBC gets it up, you should watch for yourself. (March/April 2008)
Then there's the adaptation of Guy Vanderhaege's Governor General Award-winning novel The Englishman's Boy. I know someone who's seen it and says it's really great. Michael Terriault -- so good in Prairie Giant -- Bob Hoskins, Nicholas Campbell, R.H. Thompson. Mmmm. It looks goooood. (March 2008)
There were some intriguing reality based shows -- The Week The Women Went, a science-based show called Project X.
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. I wish all the shows well. Knock it out of the park, man. Out of the park.
Now...
With all this talk of 2008, one must not forget what's on the air right now. This Hour Has 22 Minutes has been inexplicably bumped this week to put Mosque behind Mercer. But they've actually got an ep coming up that sounds like it's gonna be a treat. Mark Critch went to Moscow to claim Russia for Canada. And they got stuff on the Writers Strike, and Mulroney too. It's an embarrassment of riches really. And it airs tomorrow night at 8:30. Not tonight. After Mosque. Which is on tonight. And tomorrow at 8 too, but that will be a rerun. Of tonight's...
Wait...I'm...
No. No. 22 8:30 P.M. tomorrow (Wed) that's all you need to know. For now.
37 rumbles:
You neglected to mention that among all the cheese there was also a little show with Vanna White. On the cbc. The Canadian pubcaster. Sigh. Yours is the first optimistic take I've heard on this.
Well that's not the read I had on the room. Sorry.
I'm pretty sure that the Sophie Parker show is a remake of the Québec series _Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin_.
I'm pretty sure that the Sophie Parker show is a remake of the Québec series _Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin_.
Yes, it is.
The "Rumours" precedent doesn't make me feel all that confident about English-language adaptations of French-language shows, but I still think they could make these things work -- if they took a cue from the best Britain-to-U.S. adaptations and wrote new scripts instead of re-using the old ones.
I haven't seen Sophie but they did hire a full writing room. Howard Busgang showran. The scripts are, I'm told, either extensively rewritten or completely original.
Hey, thanks "someguy" -- that is indeed a different kettle.
I thought the CBC pulled the plug on "An American in Canada" way too early. That show was just hitting its stride.
But it sounds like the process for Sophie was very different than the simple rip and translate job done with Rumors.
And another thing -- WTF is wrong with putting Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy on the CBC, especially in the early watershed hour?
Oh, for god's sake, god forbid we would try to give Canadian shows a LEAD IN that is actually popular?
Strategically it's a savvy move, and probably well worth whatever they paid for the rights. And anyone who says otherwise is just a big old snob.
i agree with you on american in canada; it was a good show that was pretty subtle and was on after three broad sketch shows, air farce, 22 and red green (yes 22 pretty broad that year and to haters it still is) on a friday night. tough slot.
cbc gave up on it too quickly imho.
(i'm posting too quick; i'm a little punchy. i'm taking cheap shots at people who've been gone for two years. what's the point of that?)
I have to admit that I found the whole thing too depressing to blog about. Kudos to you, Denis, for remaining upbeat.
My first thoughts when hearing Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy were getting put on CBC were pessimistic BUT after thinking about it for a while, maybe that is a good thing. It may provide a lead in for shows that air after the game shows. And because many of the game showers (my mum included) tune into their game shows randomly, it might cause several viewers to randomly stumble upon CBC shows.
I'm excited about MVP and The Border. I checked out all the sites for CBC's new shows last night and on The Border website, you can play this spy game. It's actually kind of cool. I'm not sure if I've ever seen such a well-put-together site for a Canadian show before.
I guess I'm a big ol' snob, because it pisses me off that CBC is using my tax money to buy Wheel and Jeopardy. I felt queasy about Sophie but if Howard's running the room I will give it a shot, and do concur about An American in Canada. I always thought Rick Roberts was underrated as a performer, too. MEF, I thought this week's 22 was particularly good and you got a couple of out-loud chuckles from me, for what that's worth. And as far as Nick Campbell goes, anything he's in is worth a look as far as I'm concerned.
Wheel and Jeopardy will probably air 7-8, right? And right now Coronation street is at 7:30. So we're replacing one foreign show with another foreign show. I don't see the big deal, unless English shows are more Canadian than American shows.
The troubling this is that Corrie DOES work at 7:30, drawing 900,000 sometimes. I hope (for the sake of the CBC prime time lineup) Wheel and Jeopardy do as well.
i agree with someguy's last comment.
i understood that they were going to go in the late afternoon.
caroline: thanks for praise. In terms of what it's worth: do you have bbm meter on your tv?
I am increasingly troubled by the CBC wasting money and time on the schedule by airing Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.
What's the matter? Could they not still The Bachelor away from Citytv?
And I disagree with the suggestion above that it isn't a big deal to be replacing one foreign show (Coronation Street) with two new foreign shows (Wheel and Jeopardy). I have no problem with foreign fare on CBC -- in fact, I love it when they bring us the best of the world. But it should be programming that we are unlikely to see on the likes of CTV, CanWest, Rogers stations (such as Corrie), not syndicated nonsense that has been airing on private broadcasters for decades.
Oh, I didn't know if they were going to put it on in the evening or early prime. The smart thing to do would be to move Corrie Street up since I think that's heavily timeshifted anyway. I know those fans will bitch but the data says they're not big checker outers of CBC programming anyway.
And there's the rub -- you know, we really have to pick a metric with which CBC is going to be criticized and stick with it. Because it's ridiculous to criticize them even when they do something smart.
Like it or not, stations in the United States that run Jeopardy and Wheel do better than other stations in the market. You know why? Because the people who watch those shows are exposed to promos and they actually are people who check out other stuff. They're also heavily skewed toward the female viewers CBC wants to attract.
Corrie Street fanatics tune into CBC for Corrie Street. Period. All sorts of anecdotal evidence for this. They've known it for years.
If having promos for The Border in Wheel causes people to tune in who otherwise wouldn't have tuned it, then it's a great move, and, by the way, a good use of taxpayers money.
Or are you intimating that people who like Jeopardy don't pay taxes?
Regardless of how stations in the U.S. are doing, I don't think CBC should be modelling itself after WMBD in Peoria. It's a public broadcaster, and I don't know that we need to be sending it our tax dollars to do things that A-Channel in Barrie is willing and capable of doing. In any event, it isn't clear to me that just because Vanna White is a good lead-in for The Biggest Loser or NCIS means that it will attract viewers to The Border.
As for when they should air Corrie or how many Corrie fans watch other CBC shows, I really have no opinion. I just feel there is a logic to CBC airing Corrie (whatever time they show it) that doesn't exist for Wheel and Jeopardy.
I should also say that I enjoy Jeopardy quite a bit, and I also pay taxes. But since when do we need tax dollars to subsidize the airing of Jeopardy and Wheel in Canada?
Since you set a mandate for the CBC that is too wide and too large for it to cover with the resources it gets.
The main reason why a mandate review is underway right now is because it's recognized that the previous mandate, put in 16 years ago is loosey goosey and all over the place. Something's gotta give.
So long as the private broadcasters continue to signal that they will promote homegrown Canadian programming to Canadians as little as they possibly can, the CBC is it. To then turn around and ding them for doing things that will help them attract an audience is perverse.
It doesn't matter if it's not clear to you "that just because Vanna White is a good lead-in for The Biggest Loser or NCIS means that it will attract viewers to The Border," it only matters if the data suggests it will.
It does.
You're arguing perception and feel.
They're trying to step up and have a good return on cost.
When they do that, people say, "the CBC shouldn't do that."
When they don't get ratings, people say, "see, it's not relevant, nobody watches."
It's totally fucking perverse. Is it possible that the most valuable function the CBC gives to the nation is a reason to bitch about it, no matter what it does?
Oh Canada!
There are already many places to see "Wheel of Fortune" and very few to see original Canadian programming. It will be very hard to justify funding a public broadcaster that is increasingly indistinguishable from the privates. Calling people snobs for thinking "Wheel" is not appropriate content for the CBC is beneath you. You can extend your logic about the LEAD to entire schedule. Why not then program "24" instead of "The Border"? And another thing, any monkey can buy a hit Yank show, the schedule makers at the Corpse were hired to have considerably more imagination. Try spinning it how you like, it's an embarassment.
I'm not sure, but if Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy draw enough viewers, couldn't they MAKE money for CBC? In other words maybe it's not costing taxpayers money; maybe it's making you money?
I have no idea if that's the case. But if the privates ran the shows they must have been profitable. Ergo they might be for CBC too...
God help me I'm arguing CBC is doing something right. It's backwards day!
The whole argument is an embarrassment. Of course the shows fucking make money. They're cash cows. "Oh but the CBC shouldn't be in it to make money, that takes away from the privates." "Well then can we fund them at a certain level so they don't have to whore themselves to mammon? Then maybe we could take away adverising?" No, can't do that. "Oh, okay. Well, um, do you still want people to watch the channel?" Yes, it has to be responsive to Canadians and what they want to watch. "Oh, but what if they want to watch Jeopardy." No. Not that. That's beneath a public broadcaster. "Ohhhkay, but getting the audience for those prime time programs is..." CBC is useless, they can't promote a program to save their lives. "Yeah, but maybe if they can run promos in a show like Wheel they can," No, they shouldn't b able to do that. "But you just said..."
Fuckit. Really. Fuckit. Everything the CBC does is wrong.
Okay?
Happy now? If they buy a show that's popular, it's wrong. If they don't run ads, it's wrong. If they do run ads, they're wrong. If they do a winter launch, they're wrong. If they cancel a show, they're wrong. If they keep a show going, they're wrong. They shouldn't play hockey. They should only play hockey. They fucked up by losing the olympics. They should have never had the olympics in the first place. They should be completely regional. They should have more of a unified vision.
Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine.
It's quite possible that all the fucking natterers are actually getting exactly the channel they deserve.
Carpe Carpe.
What a joke.
The CBC has always had american shows on its "off prime time" roster (the simpsons and arrested development are two of the most recent examples) so adding a couple of game shows (especially ones with the pedigree of wheel and jeopardy) into similar time slots seems like no biggie to me and it certainly does not signal some kind of fuchs/ layfeld sea change as much as the malcontents would like to believe.
The CBC is, for better or worse, the network where you have the best chance to get a Canadian show on the air -- the roll out a couple of days ago far outstrips the number of canadian shows airing on any other Canadian network and they have sunk considerable resources into hour long prime time drama and half hour comedic programming.
If they give those shows something of a lead-in (and Marketplace, Nature of Things or "Canadian Reflections" style half hours is not that) I don't think that's a bad thing, especially when one considers that both "Wheel" and "Jeopardy" are watched in great numbers by the CBC's core demographic.
What I'm trying to say is that off prime cbc programming has always included some specific kinds of american shows. The current slate of comedy reruns are 20th century classics, well regarded critical and commercial shows, that bear repeated viewing. It's not like they're running old episodes of "married with children" and I beleive there is a difference.
Anyhow to reiterate showing some American programming has always been part of the CBC.
Heck, one of the keys to the CBC securing such a loyal Sunday family night audience back in the day was that the Sunday night line up was anchored by a seven pm showing of the "wonderful world of disney" -- and you can't get much more american than that.
For a public network to try and stay alive with, as denis says, such a confused public and private mandate -- one one hand we need to get eyeballs: on the other we need to make quality "smart" programming-- you are guaranteed that at least fifty percent of the viewers are going to be unhappy with what the network is doing.
Don't get me wrong -- the overt commerciality of their new shows does bother me but if I'm honest I must also admit that I sure as fuck wasn't watching "side effects", "north of sixty" or "black harbour" or any number of terrible hour long dramas that network has put out.
And if someone who makes thier living off those shows, or working for people who have made those shows, isn't even taking the time to watch them, well what do you think the rest of the population are doing?
I would support a publically funded televison network that followed the kind of mandate as PBS but I am a minority in this country.
I would not support a publically funded television station that was completely free market orientated and sent its exec's to LA every year to compete with the privates.
This decades version of the CBC is trying to carve out a middle ground between those two extremes. I think they are doing it with some grace (although I wish they would try a little harder with haddock's show instead of letting it die a slow painful death but I guess he is just a casualty of regime change) and they are going to make mistakes.
But what I don't agree with is that the purchase of a couple of American half hours in off prime is any kind of change in the way they have done business since I started watching TV.
Okay, even going with everybody's weird sentiment that programming shows that educate or challange the viewer and so only get a small audience is some elitist conspiracy to bring the masses to the classics, taking that as a given, and then even going on to assume that television's primary function is to generate revenue by selling commercials and so therefore is commanded by market forces to appeal to the lowest common denominator, or even saying diversion and entertainment are loftier goals than expanding someone's consciousness, assuming all that ... if you are a programmer, is "Wheel of Fortune" on-brand for CBC?
if you want to hold the CBC to those standards i would say that not a single cbc show ever made (drama/comedy steam) not public affairs/news fits the mandate you seem to think the cbc should have.
look at it's biggest hits or most long running shows -- anne of, the return of anne of, the beachcombers, street legal -- none of them fill the mandate you are suggesting.
give me five shows that you feel "educated and challenged" (again in the drama/comedy field) that have fulfulled your expectations as a viewer?
as for wheel of fortune, well no, it's not ideal but it is certainly as worthy of inclusion in cbc's off prime line-up as some of the american shows that have been on cbc since I started watching it (and that was back when we were excited about colour).
further, this reminds me of conversations and letters to editor op ed pieces and the like, that happened when we re-tooled street legal and brought in a female character that liked to fuck and used her sexuality etc to get ahead and then we intro'd a hunky boyfriend (JAG) for Carrie.
my God people thought we'd sold out this country's birthright by having a "night-time" soap on the air that was set in toronto to compete with all the other night time soaps on the private broadcasters and they all harkened back to some golden age on cbc where this kind of audience pleasing salacious claptrap would not be tolerated.
i remember taking that to heart being a bit of a flag waver at the time but for the life of me I could find absolutely no evidence of this so called golden age that was full of wonderful high foreheaded drama that we should be emulating.
Well if the CBC gets tiny audiences of 200,000 for the challanging stuff, like say, Finkelman's later oeuvre, versus the 300,000 its now getting for "popular" entertainment then ...
sorry but I don't know WTF you're talking about.
I am willing to concede WOF is not the best choice ever (although I do like how jep remains sacred) but buying it is not outside the norm for the cbc -- i could probably cite more examples than I already have but i think the point is made.
i don't know what the numbers for "at the hotel" v "intelligence" has to do with anything if that is indeed what you are comparing, obviously both of them are in the toilet or is intelligence a "challenging" show and you are comparing at the hotel to something else that is populist?
Anyhow if your idea of "challenging" TV is "at the hotel" I doubt you have little to fear about the potential dumbing down of the new cbc.
And there's the nut of it.
At the root the people making the kinds of arguments Geoffrey is making all through this thread, or if you go over to the fucking Teamakers -- it's all the same effecte Chicken Littles saying, "X is more example of the Sky is falling..." Wherein X this week is Wheel of Fortune.
With this lot, you'd never get a CBC that was PBS north because their thinking is so relentlessly middlebrow, frowsy-type Canadian:
- sexy is bad
- popular is bad
- broad appeal is bad
Why can't we have more shows that appeal to CBC radio listeners?
Why do they have to always go after the young'uns. (And by the way, the CBC has got to be the only broadcast organization in North America where I'd still be a young'un)
Aside from the prematurely grey Green Tea set, engaged, smart viewers in their 20s and 30s would look at this whole thread and whither Wheel of Fortune stuff and shrug and think, "what are these dudes, high?"
The shocked! shocked! reactions to Wheel of Fortune is plain, puckered, orange, stick up the arse elitism. It's what got CBC to be a calcified, dysfunctional, irrelevant organization in the first place.
The "Winter Launch" is merely roto rootering the pipes. I read this shit and realize that a series of M80s in the commodes on every floor is what's needed.
Honestly, take the "quelle horreur" types, put 'em in a boat with the Alberta "they're all a bunch of commies" guys and bury them in the tar sands.
Blueglow might have been around awhile, but thank God for someone with a little perspective who doesn't argue like a goddamn dinosaur.
Buying Wheel of Fortune and playing it in daytime isn't ripping the stockings off the old girl and asking her to surrender her virtue, and if you think it is, then you don't understand the medium.
And if you don't understand the medium, well...
...Jesus, maybe you could be appointed to the CBC board, I guess.
I look at this comment thread, remember previous threads here, see the threads at TeaMakers, know my longest comment thread ever at my place was on How Can We Sexy Up Our Shows (specifically Intellegence) and the longest, angriest, most opinionated and/or passionate, and even stupid are always those about, yep...the CBC.
Too bad none of us could get this juiced about some of our own indigenous shows/series, but instead 'the CBC' is our Grey's or House or BSG.
over the years, i've argued (cogently i might add) both or the three or four) sides of the what the cbc should be and do issue. i'm not going to weigh in on that. geoffrey, blueglow and denis have covered it. but i do think something has been lost in this whole wof thing.
Now those who know me know i'm not a huge apologist for cbc or a guy who just says everything the cbc does is great, but there was a whole bunch of scripted shows as in written by writers, announced. They're going to be on in primetime. I might watch some of them.
and launching in the winter gives them all a chance, like corner gas, or little mosque, both shows that launched in january.
that's a smart strategy imo.
It's not really appropriate that i quote martha stewart (but fuck it) that's a good thing. right? or am i missing something?
"Whole bunch" isn't probably the most accurate characterization, "a few" is more like it, but you are correct, it's a good, or at least "decent" thing.
The subject gets so much attention because the CBC is a public institution so we all have ownership interests and responsibilities. If I had shares in Bell Globe Media maybe I'd be as interested in policy at CTV.
Wasn't thinking of "At The Hotel" so much as the series of shows including "Foolish Heart". They were interesting and didn't always rely on a character pointing a gun to up the dramatic stakes.
Okay - it's an hour of television on a broadcaster that is about to air more can-con than the other ones combined in this country - so what's the big deal? And it's not like the CBC is suddenly about to fill their airwaves with some crappy Fox reality show.
Who CARES if you could watch these shows on the A-Channel? This is a BUSINESS, eyeballs matter more and more than culture, and if drawing viewers to the CBC can help these new series -- if Jep and WOF can provide a great lead-in to new shows -- more eyeballs mean more Canadian culture.
How can this even be an argument anymore? Do people honestly think that patriotic Canadians are going to watch something just because it's on the CBC (or CTV or Global...) without the other half of the equation, ie. promotion and publicity and scheduling? It doesn't work that way.
"This is a BUSINESS, eyeballs matter more and more than culture"
If that's the case with the CBC, then you are right. I wish Canada good luck.
And see, it comes to this.
Geoffrey, your comments are becoming increasingly idiotic. Go back and read the CBC charter. It was never meant to be whatever fucking holy temple in the sky you declaim; and Vanna White is not Beezelbub violating the virgin on the altar steps. The context blueglow gives here shows it has ever been thus. If you want to be backward looking, elitist, chicken little "nothing the CBC does is right and why can't the network be everything me and my Chardonnay swilling Rosedale friends want it to be?" then take that shit to the Teamakers. This sorry thread is closed.
Th__k y_o fo_ yo__ bes_ w_shes.
Yours, Canada.
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