Mike's Bloggity Blog

If a Canadian show premieres on network television in the States and no one watches, how bad is it?  Actually, the show’s not bad, but the ratings definitely were.

The CTV/Much co-production of The L.A Complex made it’s debut on The CW last night to record ratings, unfortunately, it got the record that no one wants.   With only 650,000 viewers, the Toronto/LA shot show now has the dubious distinction of being the lowest-rated in-season broadcast drama debut…on record.  That’s fancy talk for: No show has debuted on the network television to lower ratings since they started tracking records.  That is bad, bad sign.

The ratings disaster is quite a surprise, given the fact the American media were actually very positive about the show and it was given the slot of the very similar 90210, so I would have thought the audiences would have stuck around to see the show, that “looks” anything but Canadian. The TV Addict was quick to suggest that the “ratings aren’t a reflection on the show’s quality, but rather the CW’s lack of willingness to spend money on marketing.”

This is the second Canadian show that has been picked up by The CW only to not find viewers down south.  CBC’s 18-to-Life lasted only two episodes on The CW before it was canceled due to low ratings.

Fans of ratings will remember that the show didn’t garner great ratings here in Canada, but when the CW announced that they would air the first season, Muchmusic announced an additional thirteen episodes for the series.  Now that the CW is likely to dump the show pretty quickly, the decision to add more episodes to the first season, might be an expensive one.

Raise your hand if you thought the name of this blog post was Canadian TV Timbits.  It’s okay if you did, I mean you’re likely a Canadian after all.

Did you watch the premiere of The Real Housewives of Vancouver last Wednesday?  Well, if you didn’t because you were hoping to avoid the ladies, it is likely going to become very difficult to do so, especially if the show’s premiere ratings hold throughout the rest of the season.  RHOV premiered to a HUGE number of fans, actually breaking network ratings for SLICE. More than 1.2 million people tuned into to see what happens when bad plastic surgery happens to bad people, a number that would be staggering on networks like CTV or Global, making it essentially mind-blowing to see ratings that high on a cable network.

A second season hasn’t been announced yet, but with numbers like that, it is all but guaranteed.

With the 10 episode first season of Undercover Boss Canada wrapping up last Thursday to fantastic ratings for the W network (the definition of relative), the network has gone ahead and ordered 30 more episodes of the docu-series.  Nope, that’s not a typo.  Thirty more episodes of the show will be developed over the next year, that features Canadian CEOs working down in the trenches with their so called “normal employees.”  This past season, companies like FedEx, Cineplex Odeon, The Toronto Zoo and the TTC.  If you can think of 30 more Canadian businesses, you’re a better person than me.   Still this is fantastic news for Canadian production companies and their employees, who will get to work on many more episodes in the coming year or two.

More good news for MUCH’s The L.A Complex, which is about to make it’s American debut on The CW.  The nation’s music station has ordered an additional 13 episodes of its original series which stars Cassie Steele, and was developed by the creative team at Degrassi.  The first season contained only six episodes, so a double order is definitely a vote of confidence.  I’m anxious to see how the series does on The CW when it premieres on April 24th.  The last Canadian series to debut on the network, 18 to Life, lasted only two episodes.  Although, the ads for The LA Complex are considerably sexier.

Next weekend, some of the TV’s and movies’ biggest stars will descending upon the small town of Banff for four special episodes of Live With Kelly!  I’m definitely excited to have such a huge daytime show, just a few minutes from my home here in Calgary, I’m even more excited by some of the cool names on the just announced line-up of guests and co-hosts.  Banff is a small town, so if you want to do some star stalking, next weekend will be your kind of weekend.

Mark Consuelos, Peter Facinelli, Chris Harrison and Ben Mulroney will be joining Kelly Ripa as co-hosts for the Canadian-based shows.

Some of the show’s guests over the week include  American Reunion actor Jason Biggs and the latest eliminated contestant from American Idol also joins them to perform. (I think it’s hilarious that someone is going to get eliminated in LA and immediately shipped to cold Banff. I doubt they’ll even know where they are.) 

Glee’s Jayma Mays and Canadian comedienne Caroline Rhea will also be visiting and electro-pop group Far East Movement will also be performing. They’ll be joined by The Big Bang Theory’s  Johnny Galecki and Due North star David James Elliott, along with Canadian R&B artist and recent GRAMMY^® Award-winner Melanie Fiona. 

Here’s a little fun fact that I randomly know: Both Rhea and Facinelli made appearances when Live! did shows in PEI a few years ago!

The special episodes of LIVE! WITH KELLY will air from April 2-5 at 9 a.m. ET on CTV.

Wow, did this show ever sneak up on me, I don’t know how I’m just finding about it now, but yes, Undercover Boss Canada is happening and it starts next week!
Actually, upon reflection, I guess they couldn’t really announce the show, because that would essentially ruin the surprise premise of the series, so I guess it sorta makes sense.

The show will launch on the W Network on February 2nd at 9pm.

The companies participating in the series include Goodlife Fitness, Skyline International Development, The Toronto Zoo, Pizza Pizza, 1- 800 -GOT-JUNK?, Cineplex Entertainment, Molson Coors Canada, Second Cup and FedEx Express Canada.

I think the one I’m most excited to see is Karen Stintz, who is a Toronto city councillor and Toronto Transit Commission.  The TTC always gets a ton of bad press for its employees, so it will be interesting to see how the transit system is portrayed for television.

If you’re surprised that the show was able to land such big companies for its first season, don’t be.  The series is a public relations dream for any of these companies, because the entire episode is loitered with the company’s logo, it showcases its best employees and in the end, the secret boss looks like an angel.

But don’t think about that.  The show is still immesley enjoyable and it will be great if the series does as well as it does in the States, where it originated.

One question:  If the employees don’t know they are on Undercover Boss, what do they think they are being filmed for?

Good news for those in work in the Alberta film industry!

AMC has officially renewed Hell on Wheels, which is filmed on the outskirts of Calgary, for a second season.

The show wrapped up it’s first season this past weekend with about 3.8 millions viewers, making it AMC’s second highest rated series behind The Walking Dead.  Yup, Hell on Wheels really does rake in the ratings, especially when compared to award favourite Mad Men. The ratings for the series were high from the start, thanks to being on after The Walking Dead, but for the second half of its season, Hell on Wheels was on its own, and for the show to only dip to the three million range is really impressive!

Truth be told, I was a little nervous about Hell on Wheels because there was hardly any buzz for the show, and we’ve all seen networks, with shows that have okay ratings, get canned because people simply weren’t talking about it.

Hell on Wheels tells the story of a Confederate soldier who works on the railroad while taking revenge on the Union Soldiers who raped and killed his wife. It stars Anson Mount, Common and Colm Meaney. Besides the film industry being excited, I know that a lot of Calgarians will be pumped to have the cast back in our city filming the show. Last year was fun because you just never knew when you were going to see Common or Mount strollin’ the aisles of the farmers market!

Fans of the show can likely expect new episodes later this year.

After successfully launching FX Canada, another American channel is making it’s way to Canada.  ABC Family is a popular station in the States, that in recent years has launched numerous popular series like ”The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” “Melissa & Joey,” “Make It or Break It” and now the station is coming to Canada, but they are changing their name.  ABC Spark will launch on March 26th looking to target Canadian females between the ages of 15 and 34.  Ohh Ohh let me guess, tissues and dating sites are going to be some of network’s first advertisers.

Those anxious to get their hands on the shows, won’t actually have to wait until the third month of the year, to do so. Starting Monday, January 16, YTV, W Network and CMT will air blocks of the channel’s exclusive programming to promote the debut of ABC Spark. Switched at Birth will air every Monday night at 9 p.m. on YTV starting January 16; W Network will also air the series every Saturday at 12 p.m. starting January 21. Melissa & Joey will air Monday to Friday at 8:30 p.m. starting January 16 on CMT.

Cable networks are becoming more and more popular, especially as major networks struggle to develop shows with story lines as exciting as those with limited schedules on cable.  Now that we have ABC Spark with their popular shows, I’m excited to see what, thanks to CRTC regulations, they’ll develop for Canadian audiences.

Are you looking forward to any of these shows, or are you already having trouble finding room on your DVR?

It i’s officially in Winter in Canada now and while the weather might be frightful, the year-end television ratings are anything but!

As 2011 comes to a close, BBM Canada, which keeps track of TV ratings, is providing a snapshot of what Canadians were up to over the past 12 months.  It shouldn’t be a surprise that The Stanley Cup playoffs were among the most-watched television broadcasts of 2011 in Canada. In scripted programming, TV comedy continues to attract more and more viewers in Canada, with Two and A Half Men, The Big Bang Theory and The Roast of Charlie Sheen all raking in monster numbers.

It is interesting to see that Survivor and The Amazing Race still pull in HUGE numbers in Canada, yet we still don’t have versions to call our own.  Also of note, Shit My Dad Says, which was canceled by CBS for it’s low ratings, was the 6th highest rated program of the year!

What days were the most Canadian watching TV?  That honour goes to the 2011 Federal Election (25 million) and the Royal Wedding (24.9 million)!

Canada’s Top 10 Most-Watched Days in 2011

Canada’s Top 10 Television Broadcasts of 2011

Canada’s Top 10 Television Programs of 2011

With only two weeks left of 2011, the Canadian television industry must be really looking forward to this year being over.

In the past 12 months, they’ve seen the cancellation of so many Canadian productions and now they can add one more to the list.  TV writer Bill Brioux has confirmed that Global’s Combat Hospital has officially been canceled.  Although it pulled in great numbers in Canada, especially for a summer series, it never picked up any steam on ABC in the States and when the American network opted not to pick the series up for a second season, production was shut down for good.

It’s too bad that Global has decided to not continue with the series, because the number were definitley good enough to remain a Canadian only production.  After all, CTV decided to keep producing The Listener after NBC aired it for only one season.

This year, the graveyard that is the Canadian Television industry already includes So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Dan For Mayor and Hiccups.  Murdoch Mysteries was also canceled by CityTV but CBC has since announced that it will now air the series.

Up next for Global is The Firm, which premieres in January.  With a huge push of support from NBC, this show should have more success than Combat Hospital.

GUYS!  It’s Friday.  So excited.  Here’s 2 things that are realllllllly putting me in a good mood right now!

Kiefer is back!

Okay, it’s not a a 24 movie, but CTV is bringing Kiefer Sutherland back to our screens, only this time it will be our computer screens.   The Confession starts the son of Donald as well as John Hurt and when it premieres on Monday, December 5th it will premiere on multiple digital platforms including online, mobile and tablets.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but is this the first time Canada has done something like this?  At least with someone cool, I mean.

The web-series will tell the story of a hit man played by Sutherland, and a priest played by John Hurt. The story begins on Christmas Eve, when the hit man enters a church to confess his sins to the priest. Through a series of flashbacks, the confessor’s journey is revealed – laying out what has brought him to this moment and leading the audience to the dramatic ending where the man’s chances at redemption hang in the balance.   Sounds a little heavier than I’m used to, but with so many shows on repeats this month, it might worth checking out.

The show will premiere exclusively in Canada at theconfession.ctv.ca on Monday, Dec. 5 with the first three episodes, followed by two new episodes rolling out on subsequent Mondays.

Spike is coming!
It was announced today that James Marsters, who played Spike on both Buffy The Vampire Slayer AND Angel will be coming to Calgary next April for Comic Entertainment Expo, our equivalent of Comic-Con.  As the world’s biggest Buffy fan, I was over the moon excited when I saw that Marsters was coming. Actually, funny story, I think the announcement came faster than the Comic Expo people wanted, because I still haven’t received a press release about him coming to Calgary, instead Marsters announced it on his Facebook page.  Woohoo! I’m not sure at what lengths I’ll have to go to speak to him, but you know that it is happening. IT. IS. HAPPENING.  #thesecret.

Also announced to come to the Expo from April 27-29th, Amanda Tapping (Stargate: SG-1, Sanctuary) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, 24)!

We may be the butt of most of the jokes on South Park and How I Met Your Mother, but I think I know one network that will leave Canada alone…at least for a little while.

NBC released the first trailer today for The Firm, the TV version of the hit film, of which was originally a John Grisham best-seller.  The series, which has a lot of buzz behind it, is largely a very Canadian production.

When it premieres in January, Toronto will pretending to be Washington, D.C and the cast of bad guys will be filled by Canucks Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Gallatica) and Shaun Majumder (Every CBC comedy ever,) who try to take down legal eagle Mitch  played by Josh Lucas (The Lincoln Lawyer).  His wife is played by another Canadian Molly Parker (Deadwood).

NBC has been struggling as of late to find any shows that bring in the ratings and if the first look at The Firm is any indication, I think this might be the one to bring eyeballs back to the once monster network.  The Firm looks exciting, twisty and mysterious.  Plus, it’s kinda fun knowing that all the actors have loonies and twoonies in their pockets, eh?

The Firm premieres on January 8th.