TV, eh?

From Alex Strachan of Canwest News Service:

• Reality, crime the success stories
  “Two Canadian programs broke into the Top 20 list for the first time: So You Think You Can Dance Canada (No. 14, with 1.4 million viewers), and Flashpoint (No. 18, with 1.3 million). Corner Gas drew more than a million viewers a week as well, for its swan-song season. Corner Gas is now closed, but So You Think You Can Dance Canada and Flashpoint are expected to return.” Read more.

Canadian shows currently on iTunes:

6TEEN

Air Farce

Being Erica

The Border

Chilly Beach

Corner Gas

Degrassi: TNG

Dragons’ Den

Flashpoint

Heartland

Instant Star

jPod

The Jon Dore Television Show

Life’s a Zoo

Little Mosque on the Prairie

The Listener

No Opportunity Wasted

Odd Job Jack

Rick Mercer

Robson Arms

Sophie

Stargate Atlantis

Stargate SG-1

Stargate Universe

Stratusphere

This Hour Has 22 Minutes

Total Drama Action

Total Drama Island

The Tudors

The Week The Women Went

Wild Roses

This is not likely an exhaustive list so let me know if I’m missing any Canadian shows that are currently on iTunes:

6TEEN

Air Farce

Being Erica

The Border

Chilly Beach

Corner Gas

Degrassi: TNG

Dragon’s Den

Flashpoint

Heartland

Instant Star

jPod

The Jon Dore Television Show

Life’s a Zoo

Little Mosque on the Prairie

The Listener

No Opportunity Wasted

Odd Job Jack

Rick Mercer

Robson Arms

Sophie

Stargate Atlantis

Stargate SG-1

Stargate Universe

Stratusphere

This Hour Has 22 Minutes

Total Drama Action

Total Drama Island

The Tudors

The Week The Women Went

Wild Roses

From Dale Smith of Xtra:

• Where are all the gay characters on Canadian television?
  “With the cancellation of CBC’s Sophie, landscape bleak for queer characters on Canadian-made TV.” Read more.

From Liz Nicholls of the Edmonton Journal:

• The Real Place wins big at annual Rosies
  “Seven24 Films’ sudsy TV drama Wild Roses, which has been cancelled by CBC, picked up the Rosie for best dramatic series, plus awards for director Grant Harvey and actor Landon Liboiron. Saturday was a champagne night for Calgary’s Seven24 Films. Its TV drama Heartland won a Rosie for screenwriter Mark Haroun, whose work as a playwright is known to Citadel audiences (A Giraffe in Paris).” Read more.

From John Doyle of the Globe and Mail:

• Demise of frisky Dallas-in-Calgary tells a tale
  “So farewell then, Sophie Parker, and goodbye to your nitwit friends on Sophie. Farewell to the feuding McGregor and Henry families of Calgary and the CBC series Wild Roses.” Read more.

Noticeably absent from the list of CBC program renewals is Wild Roses.

From Marise Strauss in Media in Canada:

• Mercer on top, Mosque headed down
  “The Rick Mercer Report again led the pack on CBC’s prime-time schedule this season, while newcomers Being Erica and Wild Roses and the aging Little Mosque on the Prairie saw more modest numbers.” Read more.

From the Edmonton Journal:

• TV, film productions vie for Rosies
  “In the category for Best Dramatic TV series, the CBC’s popular Heartland show is up against Wild Roses, another CBC series shot in Alberta; Mixed Blessings, a family comedy shot in St. Albert and northern Alberta that airs on APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network); and Caution: May Contain Nuts, a six-episode comedy series featuring Edmonton sketch comedians, which also aired on APTN.” Read more.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• Mercer Looks Like a Million
  “Last night’s sixth season finale of the Rick Mercer Report drew 1,095,000 viewers according to BBM NMR overnight estimates.” Read more.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• Fallon’s Night Two Numbers
  “The Rick Mercer Report continues its strong season with 1,102,000 2+ viewers. … This Hour Has 22 Minutes, featuring Gavin Crawford’s killer Iggy impression, pulled 738,000, with rookie pony show Wild Roses lassoing at 432,000.” Read more.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• Ratings: Rick Mercer Gets High With Hazel
  “Hurricane Hazel McCallion helped storm the Rick Mercer Report to a seasonal high, scoring 1,289,000 viewers last night.” Read more.
• House keeps Global Alive on Monday
  “CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie (560,000) and especially Sophie (205,000, with just 93,000 25-54-year-old viewers according to BBM NMR overnight estimates) are down week to week. Just For Laughs (315,000) is pulling half what Being Erica was averaging on Monday night before it was moved–unsuccessfully, so far–to Wednesdays.” Read more.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• Wanted: A Saviour for CHCH
  “repeats of Rick Mercer and 22 Minutes drew 791,000 and 526,000 (BBM/NMR overnight “commercial” estimates). New horse opera Wild Roses rustled up 404,000.” Read more.

From Lori Sherman of the Milton Canadian Champion:

• A wild ride for wild rose
  “She had a common dream as a teenaged girl – she wanted to be famous. But living on a farm in Fenwick the chances of her ‘making it’ seemed pretty slim, she says.” Read more.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• Mercer Soars to Seasonal High
  “The Rick Mercer Report drew 1,262,000 viewers Tuesday night, it’s biggest audience of the season.” Read more.

From Glen Schaefer of Canwest News Service:

• Sex and the single cowgirl
  “A woman’s gyrating pelvis, barely clad in a scrap of leopard-skin fabric, fills the TV screen followed by — nothing subliminal here — a vigorously pumping oil derrick. It’s clear from those opening credits that the Alberta-set, sex-cowboys-and-oil series Wild Roses is not from your father’s CBC.” Read more.

From Craig Takeuchi and Sean Minogue of the Georgia Straight:

• Canadian TV heats up the winter season
  “With layoffs at Canwest Global and CTV—plus whispers of cutbacks at the CBC—even our TV industry isn’t insulated from recent economic tremors. While belts tighten one notch, however, Canadian TV has kicked it up two. Two new CBC offerings, the dramedy Being Erica and the Alberta ranch tug-of-war Wild Roses, both debuted with ratings higher than the new 90210. And CTV’s Flashpoint drew 12 million viewers with its January 16 episode. Here are more shows to chill out with over the winter season.” Read more.

From Denis McGrath at Dead Things on Sticks, with info on Being Erica, Sophie, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Wild Roses, The Week The Women Went:

• The Week The CBC Went
  “In the battle of the CBC newbies, it’s status quo. Being Erica on Monday did 632 000 viewers, down a little from the week before but still up from the premiere. What’s more promising is that just under half of those viewers are in the magic 18-49 demo. Sophie had a better-than-season average night at 385 000 just before it, which means that Erica builds substantially on its lead in.” Read more.

From Julie Crawford of North Shore News:

• Two worlds collide in CBC’s Wild Roses
  “Michelle Harrison, who plays ranchwoman Kate in the current TV series Wild Roses, takes her homework seriously. Because her character spends a good chunk of her screen time on horseback, and Harrison was adamant that a stunt double wasn’t going to do her work for her, she threw herself into the saddle with gusto. ‘I didn’t ride very well, I do now, I think,’ says the actress.” Read more.