TV, eh?

From the Peterborough Examiner:

• Season finale of now-cancelled MVP airs on CBC tonight
  “The steamy Canadian hockey drama “MVP” ends its first season with Evelyn trying to find her kidnapped daughter, Mandy breaking Damon out of rehab and rookie Trevor choosing between the Mustangs or the comforts of Loon Lake. CBC announced Friday that the series won’t be picked up next season. (CBC)” Read more.

From Lee-Anne Goodman of the Canadian Press:

• Leafs to blame for cancelled shows?
  “The producer of “MVP” says she was recently warned by CBC programming director Kirstine Layfield that if the Leafs failed to make the Stanley Cup playoffs this year, the public broadcaster’s arts and entertainment division would take a $10 million hit that would put some of the network’s much-heralded new shows at risk.” Read more.

From Alex Strachan of Canwest Media breaks down the demographics of CBC’s year:

• Crunching CBC’s numbers: the how and why behind CBC’s fall renewals
  “Layfield has her work cut out for her. And she’s actually doing a lot with very little. While culture snobs decry LCD (lowest common denominator) fare like MVP, The Border and The Week the Women Went, the fact is that CBC is trying to become relevant to a mass audience, and not just intellectuals, lefties and culture snobs.” Read more.

From John Doyle of the Globe and Mail:

• CBC axes Hockey Wives, jPod
  “However, the cancellation of Intelligence, which concluded its second season last November, is likely to be the most bitter disappointment for viewers. About a Vancouver drug baron named Jimmy Reardon and his intricate relationship with the CSIS, the show drew about 350,000 viewers each episode, but it was widely praised for its complexity and compelling intrigue. Made by Haddock Entertainment, which also made the Da Vinci’s Inquest series, it has been sold to several dozen countries and is under consideration for a remake as a U.S.-set series for the Fox network.” Read more.

From Victoria Ahearn of the Canadian Press:

• CBC dropping ‘MVP,’ Intelligence’ and ‘JPod’ for next season
  “Despite heavy promotion and critical praise, the Canadian shows “MVP,” “Intelligence” and “JPod” aren’t being renewed by CBC-TV for next season, the public broadcaster said Friday.” Read more.

From BBM Canada, Rick Mercer Report at #17 (1.025 million), Little Mosque on the Prairie at #18 (1.022 million):

• Top programs – Total Canada

Bill Brioux of TV Feeds My Family recaps the CBC media release about renewals, but also adds some ratings info from this week:

• MVP, jPod Out, Border, Sophie In for ‘08-09: MVP (386,000), Sophie (389,000), jPod (312,000), from last week: Little Mosque on the Prairie (881,000). Read more.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds my Family:

• Numbers Other Than C-10: The Border (590,000), The Week the Women Went (627,000), Degrassi (520,000), The Englishman’s Boy Part I (805,000). Brioux also lists dates for season finales of CBC shows.

From Ryan Fontaine at Xtra:

• MVP’s puck sluts
  “‘The thing about me,’ says Kent Staines, writer and cocreator of CBC’s new series MVP: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives, ‘is I know nothing about hockey. Nothing. Zero.’” Read more.

The cast of MVP (from left to right) – Dillon Casey (Trevor), Kristin Booth (Connie), Lucas Bryant (Gabe), Peter Miller (Damon), Deborah Odell (Evelyn).

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• Numbers Not There for MVP
  This week’s ratings for MVP: 258,000, Rick Mercer Report: 1,025,000, Robson Arms: 686,000, The Guard: 431,000, This Hour Has 22 Minutes: 639,000. Read more.

From a media release:

Canadian actress Charlotte Sullivan is hard at work! Aside from starring week after week in CBC Television’s MVP, she is set to grace the small screen as Menerva Fairchild in an upcoming episode of the hit Citytv series Murdoch Mysteries. Viewers can catch Sullivan in her guest role on the Still Waters episode of Murdoch Mysteries, airing March 13, 2008 at 10 p.m. ET/PT/MT.

(more…)

From Bill Harris of Sun Media:

• When art imitates Bertuzzi
  “Peter Miller even looks a little like Todd Bertuzzi. They aren’t spitting images or anything. But Miller’s character in MVP, Damon Trebuchet, doesn’t do the exact same thing as Bertuzzi, either. Suffice to say that in this week’s instalment of MVP on CBC, the general similarities to the infamous Bertuzzi incident will not escape you.” Read more.

From BBM Canada:

• Feb. 4-10 — Corner Gas at #10 (1.4 million), Rick Mercer Report at #27 (970,000)
• Feb. 11-17 — Corner Gas at #7 (1.476 million)

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• Global Shortage — ratings for Little Mosque (900,000), Sophie(538,000)
• MVP DOA; Viewers Went With Women — ratings for The Border (548,000), The Week The Women Went (929,000), Degrassi (426,000), Corner Gas (1.286 million), MVP (278,000), The Guard (504,000), Rick Mercer Report (856,000), This Hour Has 22 Minutes (748,000), Heartland (509,000)

From Rob Salem of the Toronto Star:

• Hot Box, TV worth talking about
  “A recent survey says that awareness is at an all-time high for the new, more viewer-friendly CBC prime-time lineup. One in three people polled late last month by The Canadian Press and Harris-Decima had actually heard of The Border, jPod, MVP and Sophie. Mind you, that’s heard of – not actually watched. Indeed, the most seen of all the new shows, The Border, came in at only 10 per cent. And that’s also heard of as opposed to liked. While jPod got the most positive reviews of the bunch, it also got the most negative responses. Could this be more quintessentially Canadian? … 9 p.m. Let’s try to up those viewership numbers (see above) for The Border on CBC, shall we?” Read more.

From Lee-Anne Goodman of the Canadian Press:

• Canadians taking notice of CBC shows
  “As of Jan. 28th, one in three people polled had heard about four of the CBC’s heavily promoted winter shows: “The Border,” “JPod,” “Sophie” and “MVP.” All of the shows launched in early January.” Read more.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• MVP Needs Performance Enhancement
  “CBC’s sexy new hockey wives drama is simply not scoring with viewers. MVP’s second Tuesday outing netted just 221,000 viewers, down from last Tuesday and down from the sorry numbers in its original Friday night timeslot. … The numbers are also starting to tilt the wrong way on Monday nights for another new CBC drama, The Border, down to 494,000 this week, despite an incredibly timely episode about illegal organ harvesting. … The new CBC reality show The Week The Women Went drew 687,000 the same night, remarkable when you consider it has now officially become THE DULLEST TV SHOW EVER MADE. … Global’s The Guard held steady at 538,000 Tuesday.” Read more.

From the Toronto Star:

• Ben Rayner’s reasons to live …
  “Wow, MVP – a.k.a. “Desperate Hockey Wives” – is so much more dreadful and obvious than CBC’s relentless promo blitz threatened that it’s actually kind of awesome. All the women bouncing around in their skivvies don’t hurt, either, I must admit, but there’s something sickly compelling and utterly ’21st-century’ about self-aware meta-crap Canadiana too dumb to get its own irony right.” Read more.

Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family has last week’s ratings for many shows (click the links below for more than are mentioned in the blurbs):

• Global Doesn’t Have a Prairie
  “Wednesday’s CBC numbers: Little Mosque 776,000, new ABC Family pickup Sophie 545,000, fifth estate 671,000.” Read more.
• MVP Held Off Score Sheet
  “In its new day and date premiere, the sexy prime time soap about the “secret lives of hockey wives” netted only 249,000 viewers. That’s almost exactly what it was getting on Fridays before CBC flipped it with lower rated rookie jPod.” Read more.
• Cross Border Election Win
  “The bad news for The Border is that it sank to its lowest audience level ever Monday night, an estimated 567,000 viewers–down nearly 200,000 viewers from the Monday before. It was also the week the viewers went away from The Week The Women Went, with the CBC reality series down to 548,000 viewers.” Read more.

From Kathryn Kates of the Toronto Star:

• Now starring in their own home
  “This Valentine’s Day, actors Gabriel Hogan and Inga Cadranel will be enjoying their newly decorated master bedroom. … The two have known each other since childhood, and played together while growing up in co-op apartments in Yorkville, where their parents were good friends. Both were raised in theatrical families. Hogan is the son of actors Michael and Susan Hogan and Cadranel is the daughter of actors Maja Ardal and Jeff Braunstein.” Read more.

From Vinay Menon of the Toronto Star:

• Hot Box: Television to talk about
  “9 p.m.: Behold the Desperate Time Slot Shuffle as jPod gets kicked into the Friday night hinterland and the pucks-and-abs MVP, co-starring Dillon Casey as rookie Trevor Lemonde, skates into Tuesday, starting tonight (CBC).” Read more.

Bill Harris of the Toronto Star analyses the CBC schedule change:

• MVP, jPod skedded for a changeup
  “Obviously, the fact that this move was deemed necessary isn’t great news for either show. Anything that the CBC runs on Tuesday has to deal with stiff competition from American Idol on CTV and House on Global. And nothing tends to do well on Fridays, regardless of the show or the network.” Read more.