TV, eh?

From Bill Brioux of TV Feeds My Family, ratings for The Border, Dragons’ Den, Air Farce, Rick Mercer Report, Heartland, The Tudors, Little Mosque on the Prairie, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Sophie, So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Corner Gas, The Guard, and Degrassi, among others:

• Grace Park Behind Border Jump
  “Boosted by the series debut of Grace Park as Homeland Security Agent Liz Carver, The Border jumped to 765,000 viewers across Canada Nov. 10. That made it CBC’s highest-rated off-ice series last week.” Read more.

From Jon Sarpong of Inside Toronto:

• Canadian television must increase diversity
  “You can judge the value that you place on something by the time and finances that you devote to it,” says (Annmarie) Morais. “So if we use that as the bar, we see that the Canadian TV industry doesn’t highly value black Canadian experiences. Our goal as black communities is to see ourselves reflected in some way. But disappointingly, perhaps the one way that Canadian networks do mirror the American television format is that you don’t see us on prime time; and you don’t see us being decision makers regarding what is televised during prime time.” Read more.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family, ratings for the below as well as So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Corner Gas, The Guard, Degrassi:

• Weekly Ratings in Jeopardy
  The Rick Mercer Report, opposite U.S. presidential election returns, drew 843,000 last Tuesday night. Air Farce Final Flight, still stubbornly resilient, drew 728,000, The Tudors, 652,000, The Border, 643,000, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, 631,000, Dragon’s Den, 617,000, Doctor Who, 547,000, Doc Zone, 515,000, Little Mosque, 514,000, Nature of Things, 455,000, Heartland, 430,000, fifth estate, 289,000 and dead last–below MVP and jPod numbers–poor Sophie at 251,000 viewers.” Read more.

From Lyle Masaki of AfterElton.com:

• IMHO: “Degrassi” episode 8.05, “The Man with Two Hearts”
  “For six seasons Degrassi: The Next Generation has included a variety of queer characters including Marco Del Rossi (played by out actor Adam Ruggiero), lesbian Alex Nuñez, bisexual Paige Michalchuck as well as Marco’s various dates and boyfriends, including Paige’s brother Dylan. But by the end of the last season all of those characters had been written out or had been dropped to recurring status. Friday, Degrassi outed one of the new characters introduced this season.” Read more.

From Dani Ng-See-Quan of andPop:

• Charlotte Arnold: From Degrassi’s Queen Bee to Confronting the Face of Poverty
  “Holly J. Sinclair is Degrassi: The Next Generation’s “mean girl.” This season, not only is she head cheerleader and class president, she’s high-strung, short-tempered, and in short, the typical queen bee.” Read more.

From the Canadian Press:

• ‘Eastern Promises’ the big winner at the Directors Guild of Canada Awards
  “Among TV shows, Intelligence was named best drama, Degrassi: The Next Generation won best family show and Corner Gas was named best comedy. The gritty series Durham County, took two trophies, for best direction and best picture editing.” Read more.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family, with ratings for Mercer, Dragon’s Den, The Border, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Tudors, Heartland, Air Farce, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Sophie, The Guard, So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Corner Gas and Degrassi:

• Last Week: Mercer’s Back On Top
  “He shoots, he scores: last week’s Rick Mercer Report topped all CBC prime time shows with 1,114,000 viewers, outdrawing even Saturday night staple Hockey Night in Canada (1,021,000).” Read more.

From Jessica Lewis of Ryerson University’s Eyeopener:

• Degrassi gets schooled
  “It’s a month into the eighth season of Degrassi: The Next Generation, but the cast wrapped filming last week. Four of the actors and actresses — Charlotte Arnold, Raymond Ablack, Nina Dobrev and Evan Williams — are now either going back to school, planning for their next year or using the lessons they learned, all at Ryerson University.” Read more.

From Brian Gorman of the Brantford Expositor:

• Clashing cultures a novelty for ‘Degrassi’ newcomer
  “On Degrassi: The Next Generation, Melinda Shankar plays a teenager at odds with the values of her strict Old World parents. In real life, the actress says, her relationship with her family couldn’t be farther from that of the character she plays on the teen drama series.” Read more.

From the National Post:

• Gemini Awards, round two: The judges totally like Degrassi
  “Kung-fu kicking chickens, teen melodrama and renovations gone wrong were among the victors as the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced the second batch of winners of the 2008 Gemini Awards yesterday in the children’s, youth and lifestyle categories.” Read more.