From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:
Link: Rick Mercer embodies Canada, without the smugness
On Tuesday, after 15 seasons and 277 episodes, The Rick Mercer Report will cease to be. There will be an hour-long episode (CBC, 8 p.m.) with highlights from across the years, and one last rant from Mercer.
Frankly, it’s time. The show is still doing well in the ratings. It gets close to one million viewers every week, at a time when Canadian TV struggles to reach viewers for Canadian productions. Ratings for everything appear to be down, from The National to new, heavily promoted series like Caught, which has about 500,000 viewers. Only Murdoch Mysteries remains a juggernaut and the only Canadian weekly show that, like Mercer’s, reaches about a million people on the night it airs. Continue reading.