From Bill Brioux:
Throwing the book at Canadian television
The professionals in the room were still buzzing over a fuse colleague John Doyle lit in the Globe and Mail. John asked a very direct question: Where are Canada’s “Golden Age†TV shows?
Well, you can find them in the pages of this book. It’s a 60-page guide commissioned by the Prime Time team–led by president and CEO Michael Hennessy–at the Canadian Media Production Association. Continue reading.
The girls sitting behind me were crying. I could hear them, sniffing self-consciously in the dark. That’s the only sound I discerned from them—or the other 400-plus in attendance—during Thursday’s sneak peek movie theatre screening of Heartland‘s Season 8 finale, “Written in Stone.”
The quiet sniffling from those die-hard fans, dressed in jeans, cowboy hats and boots and checked shirts, was a sharp contrast to half an hour earlier when the Heartland cast was introduced to the audience prior to the screening. Then, those same girls screamed “We love you Ty!” and then squealed when he—or rather Graham Wardle, the dude who plays Ty—looked their way, smiled and waved.
“Oh my God, he’s so gorgeous,” opined one.
“I’m going to die,” confessed another.
I’ve been reviewing Season 8 of Heartland for TV, eh? and have become engrossed in the characters and storylines. But I had no clue just how beloved the folks at that Alberta ranch are to faithful viewers who have been tuning in since the pilot.
“We held a charity event for the citizens of High River, Alberta, after that horrible flood [in 2013],” showrunner Heather Conkie told me hours earlier at CBC’s Toronto headquarters. “We expected 500 people to show up and 2,000 tickets were sold just like that. The event started at 11 a.m. and there were people lining up at 8. People had come from Ohio and Florida. It was stunning.” The same was true during a meet and greet on Thursday, where fans from across Canada and the U.S. trekked to Toronto for the chance to have a picture taken with Wardle and co-stars Amber Marshall, Michelle Morgan, Alisha Newton, Shaun Johnston and Chris Potter.
With that kind of adoration comes responsibility. CBC’s Sunday night stalwart—it has been renewed for Season 9—had detractors who tuned in last fall to see Amy Fleming a changed woman after spending months in Europe. She was snooty and sometimes downright snotty to her small-town family, and it rubbed some viewers the wrong way.
“We expected it,” Conkie admited. “I had faith that if fans stayed with us they would understand it was a good way to go.” Conkie travelled to Europe when she was that age and returned home “insufferable” because she knew everything and Toronto was stupid and ugly. Amy was immersed in the posh horse racing set for four months, so it made sense that she would have attitude. Conkie and her fellow executive producers were worried they’d gone too far once they took a look at online comments, but kept their fingers crossed the fans would stick around. They have; Heartland has averaged 1 million viewers per week.
It’s understandable viewers want their favourite characters to stay the same and have each episode end happily. But that’s not reality, and Heartland strives to be real. That was driven home in a season that saw Georgie (Newton) torn between her birth family and adopted family, Ty figuring out his career path, Tim (Potter) dipping his toe back into relationship water and Lou (Morgan) and Peter (Gabriel Hogan) seeing their marriage fall apart. That last storyline has been difficult to watch, but necessary.
“It has been hard to play these scenes, but a lot of Canadians have gone through this,” Morgan said after the photo op. “We think this is a situation that a lot of people can relate to. It made me sad, but families go through ups and downs.”
“The important message there is that we don’t need to be beside each other to love one another,” Johnston explained. “We can be separated for a while but we can still maintain that sense of family, and caring and sharing. It just doesn’t have to look the very same way every day.”
That word—family—was used a lot by the cast and producers on Thursday, both in reference to their co-workers and those fans. During a question and answer session following the screening, Potter took a moment to thank everyone for their continued support of Heartland, something he’d spoken of earlier in the day.
“When I read the pilot, I realized this was a show that could go on for 15 years,” he said. “And I wondered if the Canadian business model would allow that to happen. In the States they’ve lots of shows like this that have gone on for years. Touched by an Angel, 7th Heaven. I feel like, as long as there are viewers, this can just keep going.”
But getting back to those girls behind me, quietly crying during the season finale. We’re those tears of joy, or sadness? Will Ty and Amy really tie the knot after eight years of growing their relationship? Let’s just say those girls—and everyone else in the theatre—were very happy by the time the lights came up.
Heartland‘s season finale airs Sunday at 7 p.m. on CBC.
I was just curious if Blood, Sweat & Tools may run a second season and when or how you may be able to enter to possibly get on it?—Ashley
Hey Ashley, thanks for the email. Unfortunately, there is no casting information for Season 2 of Blood, Sweat & Tools because the first go-round hasn’t aired yet. You can catch the debut on Monday, April 13, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery. Check out the cast and judges.
What I think will happen [on Murdoch Mysteries] is that Edna’s husband will be the murderer next week, or (much more likely) one of the victims. George will be under suspicion for his death and the detective’s position will go to someone else, and even after everything comes out, the relationship with Edna will still be over. So he’ll end up with nobody and will still be at Station House No. 4 at the end of the season. As for who the murderer might be? Maybe a crazed Leslie Garland, but I don’t think so. I’d love if it looks like it’s him, only to get murdered as well. I’m holding out for a return of Gillies, since I think Murdoch was right about his theory that he could have faked his death. And I think he’d go for Leslie because he wouldn’t like that someone pretended to be him.—Enhas
Poor, George Crabtree! I was so sad for him. I just love the character and it looked like all was finally falling into place for him. But, alas, it was not to be. At the very end of the episode there appeared to be someone watching when George and Edna met up. Was it her husband? Will he turn up dead? Will George be blamed? Will Edna? Have I been watching too many murder mystery shows? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out in Season 9.—Joyce
[What] channels [for pick and pay]? I want whole broadcasts from South Africa, Mauritius, Nigeria, Chile, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Turkey, France, Spain, Finland, etc. We lack much internationalization here.—Bill
About the only channels I would keep are TCM, Showcase (although endless repeats of NCIS may make me want to cancel), BNN, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, CNBC, maybe CNN, but not during presidential election year when that is the only thing that exists in their small universe, Vision (for the British comedies) and maybe AMC and Bravo. I would definitely dump every single sports channel, History, Space, HGTV, A&E and Discovery, They are all dominated by reality crap now and I don’t even bother to check them any more.—Dorf
We want CBC, TVO, the American channels, YTV and Teletoon.—Leh
Food TV: Triple-D, Knife Fight, YGEH, Eat St.
Documentary Channel: For documentaries
Smithsonian: For documentaries
Love Nature: For documentaries
HIFI TV: Lots of Bourdain reruns, music content
Cottage Life: Because winters are long
Discovery Velocity: Planes, trains and automobiles—TJ
Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Let me know below or via @tv_eh.
From a media release:
HISTORY® announced today that it has picked up a fourth season of its hit scripted series Vikings, created and written by Michael Hirst (The Tudors, Elizabeth). Five new episodes remain in the current season airing Thursdays at 10pm ET/PT with the season finale slated for Thursday, April 23rd at 10pm ET/PT.
The first four episodes of season three took viewers by storm, averaging 895,000 (A2+), 428,000 (A25-54) and 375,000 (A18-49), making the new season of Vikings the #1 specialty drama on Thursday nights in all key demos*.  Vikings has been the #1 specialty drama since its inaugural season premiere in 2013** and this year earned four Canadian Screen Awards including Best International Drama.
Production on season four will begin this spring in Ireland.
Vikings tells the extraordinary tales of the lives and epic adventures of these warriors and portrays life in the Dark Ages through the eyes of Viking society. The gripping family saga of Ragnar (Travis Fimmel), Rollo (Clive Standen), Lagertha (Canadian Katheryn Winnick) and Bjorn (Canadian Alexander Ludwig) continues in season three as alliances and loyal friendships are questioned, faith is catechized and relationships are strained.
Created and written by Michael Hirst – one of the premier historical story-tellers in the industry (Academy-Award winning film Elizabeth; and the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated series The Tudors), Michael serves as Executive Producer along with Morgan O’Sullivan of World 2000 (The Count of Monte Cristo; The Tudors), Sheila Hockin (The Tudors; The Borgias), John Weber of Take 5 Productions (The Tudors; The Borgias), Sherry Marsh, Alan Gasmer and James Flynn (The Tudors; The Borgias).
Vikings is an international Irish/Canadian co-production being co-produced by World 2000 and Take 5 Productions. HISTORY broadcasts both domestically in Canada and in the U.S. MGM Television is the worldwide distributor outside of Ireland and Canada. Vikings is produced in association with Shaw Media.
From a media release:
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today unveiled a draft code that will help Canadians make informed choices and resolve disputes with their television service providers.
During the Let’s Talk TV conversation, many Canadians said that cable and satellite companies do not always provide enough information about their packaging and pricing. Canadians also said that, in their view, the companies sometimes provide misleading or inaccurate information, as well as poor or inconsistent customer service. The CRTC’s code reflects what it heard from Canadians.
Under the proposed code, cable and satellite companies would be required to provide easy-to-understand agreements to their customers and notify them of changes to their services. The code would also clarify the terms surrounding the addition or cancellation of channels, early cancellation fees and installation appointments, among others. Combined with the CRTC’s previously announced prohibition of 30-day cancellation policies, Canadians will have the freedom and necessary information to switch service providers if they are not satisfied.
To help the CRTC finalize the code, Canadians are invited to share their views on the following questions:
The CRTC is welcoming comments on the draft code until May 25, 2015. Canadians can participate by:
For more information on how to participate in a CRTC consultation, please see:Â It’s Your CRTC: Here’s How to Have Your Say!
The CRTC will also host an online discussion forum to promote further discussion among Canadians on the proposed code. Details of the discussion forum will be announced shortly.
In addition, Canadians are increasingly obtaining their various communications services from the same company through bundled offerings. For this reason, the CRTC is proposing that Canadians would be able to direct their complaints relating to the code to the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services. This industry ombudsman currently works with Canadians to help resolve complaints relating to their wireless, Internet and telephone services, and administers the CRTC’s wireless code.
Improved access for Canadians with disabilities
Canadians with disabilities will have access to more content that has been adapted to their needs and which will provide them with a seamless viewing experience. The CRTC expects that when television programs with closed captioning are made available online and on mobile devices, the closed captioning will be included.
In addition, the CRTC expects broadcasters to increase the amount of programs with described video they offer over the next few years. By September 2019, most broadcasters will have to provide described video for programs aired in prime time, from 7 to 11 p.m.
Finally, the CRTC will require television service providers to make accessible hardware, such as set-top boxes and remote controls, available to subscribers, where they can be obtained from suppliers and are compatible with their networks. This requirement will be implemented by the end of 2015.
About Let’s Talk TV
In 2013, the CRTC launched Let’s Talk TV: A Conversation with Canadians on the future of their television system, and how it can adapt to evolving technologies and viewing habits. The CRTC received more than 13,000 comments from Canadians during the conversation’s various phases.
Today’s announcement is the fifth in a series of decisions that ensure Canada’s television system adapts to a World of Choice, in which Canadians are watching the content they want on different devices and at a time of their choosing.
Over the past few months, the CRTC has introduced significant changes that will foster a more dynamic marketplace in which there are incentives for: (1) television service providers to offer reasonably priced services that meet the diverse needs and interests of Canadians; (2) creators to produce high-quality, original content that is compelling to audiences; and (3) Canadians to switch television service providers without having to give 30-days advance notice if they are not satisfied, to choose over-the-air television as a free, competitive alternative and to make informed decisions about their service providers.
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