Video: Pamela Anderson on Package Deal
Everything about Package Deal, eh?
Package Deal premieres September 30
From a media release:
City’s original series this fall include:
September 23 – The Project: Guatemala (airing simultaneously with OLN)
September 29 – Storage Wars Canada (OLN series also airing on City)
September 30 – Package Deal
New Tuesday: Package Deal special preview
Package Deal, City – “The Dinner†special preview
Danny White (Randal Edwards, Degrassi: The Next Generation) has found the perfect girl – Kim (Julia Voth, Bitch Slap). But things go awry when he introduces her to his intrusive brothers, Sheldon (Harland Williams, There’s Something About Mary) and Ryan (Jay Malone, Monk). As their meddling threatens to derail his relationship, Danny seeks advice from his favourite client, McKenzie (guest star Eugene Levy, American Pie) – and McKenzie knows a lot about love, given that he’s on trial for murdering his wife.
Package Deal premieres this fall on City. Additional details to be announced at a later date.
Examining the fall season of CanCon
Broadcasters have had their upfront presentations and announced their fall primetime seasons, so now we can get the microscope out to look at their Canadian offerings. (In the case of Global, an electron microscope may be needed.) I am, as usual, only including scripted and reality shows, so excluding news, sports, newsmagazines, specials, movies, documentary series or infotainment series.
CBC
I wanted to write a post about CBC’s 2013/14 season when they launched it, but it would have been nearly identical to what I wrote for 2012/13: this isn’t the public broadcaster I want. The upcoming year shows minimal risk, aiming for middle-of-the-road appeal, a renewal of everything that moves despite ratings, no new scripted series, and a foreign import for prime time — more egregiously, they felt the need to import a cop show when those comprise a large percentage of Canada’s gross domestic product.
However, what I said last year is more true this year: CBC is in a difficult place financially and politically (Executive Director for commissioned and scripted programming Sally Catto gave us a candid interview about how the budget cuts have affected programming). And some of their mid-season TV movies and mini-series seem promising. And at least their slate of CanCon is visible to the naked eye.
CanCon scripted and reality series for fall primetime:
- Battle of the Blades (1 hour)
- Cracked (1 hour)
- Dragons’ Den (1 hour)
- Heartland (1 hour)
- Murdoch Mysteries (1 hour)
- Republic of Doyle (1 hour)
- Rick Mercer Report (1/2 hour)
- 22 Minutes (1/2 hour)
Total: 7 hours
City
With less market penetration than the others, City is often the poor cousin in terms of Canadian series as well. This year, their fall season has more than the other private networks if you count those that will air first on specialty network OLN. Which I don’t quite, except maybe half marks for effort. They gave Seed a surprise renewal for 2014 — the ratings didn’t entirely justify it, but perhaps they’ll experiment with a different timeslot or find other ways to grow the audience that shrank last year — and have Mother Up and Meet The Family on the horizon for mid-season.
I have mixed feelings about the scheduling of their one true original fall show, Package Deal. The premiere date has been pushed back more than once; they seem to have landed on airing it on June 24 as last announced but then delaying the rest of the season for a fall run. They used the “because, hockey” excuse for two delays, which make them seem like the only Canadians unaware of the playoffs. But I do admire them for breaking away from the model of summer season being the safe season for CanCon, and for putting their new multi-camera comedy between two US multi-camera comedies (single-cam Seed’s old spot between How I Met Your Mother and 2 Broke Girls, but without the draw of a Big Bang Theory rerun at the same time to pilfer viewers).
CanCon scripted and reality series for fall primetime:
- Package Deal (1/2 hour)
- The Liquidator (OLN first run – 1 hour)
- The Project: Guatemala (OLN first run – 1 hour)
- Storage Wars Canada (OLN first run – 1/2 hour)
Total: 1/2 hour or if I’m generous, 3 hours
CTV
As CTV bragged in their 2013/14 launch media release, “In total, CTV’s fall schedule features 17.5 hours of simulcast programming weekly, more than any other Canadian network.” So you know the CanCon news isn’t great. Apparently Bell Media president Kevin Crull has said he can see a time soon when in-season primetime will be 25% Canadian, but that time is not now. The network has announced one CanCon series launching in fall this year — Played (I will imagine your surprise that it’s another cop show) — while MasterChef Canada was announced for mid-season (I’ll imagine your surprise that it’s another Reality Show X Canada format) and Motive is renewed for a second season.
CanCon scripted and reality series for fall primetime:
- Played (1 hour)
Total: 1 hour
Global
Coming off their cancellation of Bomb Girls, Global announced two new scripted series slated for mid-season: hospital drama Remedy and comedy Working the Engels. But alone among the major networks, they have no Canadian scripted or reality shows added to their fall schedule.
CanCon scripted and reality series for fall primetime:
- Nothing (0 hours)
- Yup, apparently really nothing (0 hours)
- They do have Walk the Walk on Saturday nights — a documentary series about Canada’s Walk of Fame — but I’m not including anyone else’s documentary series (or Saturday nights as primetime) so this shouldn’t count. But I’m throwing them a bone.
Total: 0 hours. No I’m not generous enough to include Walk the Walk‘s 1 hour here.
For an at-a-glance chart of Canadian networks’ fall season, check out The TV Addict’s Definitive Fall 2013 Primetime TV Schedule (Canadian edition).
Photo by Cameron Archer
Industry Update – Rogers Media/City 2013 Upfront
Rogers Media’s 2013 upfront was held June 4, 2013, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Before the upfront, Rogers announced the renewal of Seed, as well as the rescheduling of Package Deal to fall 2013. This stuff you already know, so I won’t waste time typing about it.
The interviews started shortly after 2:30 PM ET. Surprisingly, five of the seven interview segments focused on Canadian shows. Seed and Package Deal featured cast interviews, though a majority of Seed‘s questions were answered by executive producer Mark Farrell and star Adam Korson. Eva Longoria was on hand for Mother Up! Also interviewed were the cast of OLN/City’s Storage Wars Canada, and Ray Zahab from OLN/City’s The Project: Guatemala. Rounding out the bill were James Wolk from The Crazy Ones, and Lauren Ash from Super Fun Night.
The Score, which joined the Sportsnet family as soon as the CRTC approved Rogers’ takeover of the channel, will become Sportsnet 360 on July 1. This doesn’t mean The Score is dead – the website and mobile businesses Score Digital owns still carry The Score’s lineage, and name.
Rogers promised Sportsnet 360 would retain The Score’s personality, and I hope Sportsnet 360 makes the cut. I just hope it doesn’t become a clearinghouse for Sportsnet 590 The Fan simulcasts. It’s nice Tim Micallef and Sid Seixeiro are back on The Score/Sportsnet 360, but the Tim and Sid simulcast is there for three hours of easy weekday CanCon.
The Rogers upfront presentation was typical of its kind: a rundown of Rogers’ properties, with a visible countdown displaying the number of minutes until free bar access. The most genuine surprise was two performances by Tegan and Sara, in service of City obtaining Canadian broadcast rights to the Grammy Awards. Professional wrestler Ron Killings (d/b/a WWE’s R-Truth) and IZOD IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe shepherded The Score into the Sportsnet family.
Rogers was especially interested in Mother Up!, showing unfinished and behind-the-scenes clips of the show during the upfront presentation. The clips were rough – backgrounds weren’t cleaned up and painted in. It struck me as odd to showcase Mother Up! in beta mode, yet it’s obvious Rogers has high hopes for it. Package Deal clips were also screened, while Breakfast Television formally announced a Montreal edition with a “surprising” host.
One notable thing about City’s 2013-14 fall schedule is the return of Great Canadian Movies, which will air Saturday at 9:00 PM ET, after an “encore presentation” of The Project: Guatemala. The Canadian movie block was temporarily retired in 2012-13, in favour of The Bachelor Canada, Less Than Kind and Murdoch Mysteries “encores”.
The Rogers upfront promoted OMNI’s Bollywood Star. Mohawk Girls, an APTN/OMNI series, wasn’t mentioned. It was a curious omission. CityNews Channel’s immediate termination last week was also ignored. Granted, upfronts deal in “happy news” moments, and don’t focus on the failures. I would have liked to see Rogers mention CityNews Channel; it was an integral part of Rogers’ 2011 upfront.
To promote Storage Wars Canada during the free bar, advertisers were handed “Rogers Cash”. The completion of activities – e.g., having a caricature drawn at the Mother Up! booth, playing a racing simulation and/or meeting R-Truth at the Sportsnet 360 booth, getting a Cityline beauty makeover – allowed participants to earn more “Rogers Cash”. It was a departure from standard protocol – Canadian television upfronts don’t usually have a gaming element. This was mainly for the advertisers’ amusement, but it was effective enough promotion.
In the end, Rogers Media had a relatively modest 2013 upfront, even though it was more lavish than the 2012 upfront. While not much actual news was offered, at least Rogers didn’t oversell itself. The countdown-to-free-bar display was a bit much, though.
