Everything about Private Eyes, eh?

Featured, Masterchef Canada, Private Eyes

Comments and queries for the week of June 24

MasterChef Canada

If Jeremy had served one entree rather than four dishes in one, I think he would’ve had a better change of winning. His mistake was making four dishes rather than one in the entree round. —Rich

Wow, that’s all I can say. What a disappointing finale. Jeremy was supposed to win. They wanted a Canadian female to win for ratings, but at least find someone other than Jeremy to put her up against. He outclassed her on so many levels. —Ed

I will not watch MasterChef Canada again. The decision and shallowness of this year’s decision has left a very bad taste in my mouth. —Cynthia

It must have been a very difficult decision for the Chef judges, but I was happy that Mary came out victorious. I will bet that Jeremy gets some offers in the culinary industry in his future. —Joyce

Jeremy threw in everything but the kitchen sink in that appetizer, four sushi dishes and dessert. That doesn’t make it creative! Would you like a bison entree, followed by four different raw seafood rolls and then a dessert that had cream in it? None of the dishes were connected in any way.  For those of you who think Mary won because she is a woman, how would you like it if a man won and everybody said he only won because he’s a “man”? You are sore losers. Veronica, Matthew, the doctor and several other contestants got as much face time as Mary did on the show. She won because she’s a great chef—get over it! —So There

For those who thought Jeremy should have won, keep in mind that the winner was likely decided not just based on the final round but over the entire competition. At any rate, I didn’t think Jeremy decisively beat Mary in the final round. Keep in mind, none of us tasted the food. —Rabbit

I think Mary had it in the bag all season and her final meal looked and obviously tasted great. Good on you girl. Hope you get everything you want. —Glenys

Haunted Case Files

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to see the series premiere in the U.S. for a few more weeks, it’s both exciting and a relief to read your thoughts about Episode 1. Anna and I shared five of our most compelling investigations complied over the last six years of investigating some of the most haunted locations in the U.S.A. Villisca is certainly an experience we will not forget, it is good to know through our stories you felt some of the anxiety and fear this location, as well as the others, experienced by each of us. We are a bit biased when it comes to the content and the impact our stories have with the viewers. It is good to read such a positive recap.
In closing, we can attest to the fact that ALL of what you hear and see is real, experienced by each of us, (The Paranormal Investigators Squad). We love what we do, we continue to Seek the Truth. One location at a time! Thanks for a Great Review!! Regards.—Alan and Anna Tolf, PoppaNana Paranormal Investigations, Michigan

Private Eyes

I’ve always made fun of my girlfriend’s detective shows, but not Private Eyes. I’m hooked especially on Cindy Sampson, now there is one sexy woman. Let’s just hope this show lasts a little while; not a bad show for being Canadian. —John

 

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.

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Private Eyes, Ratings

Private Eyes nabs average of 1.4 million viewers

4 Comments

From a media release:

ALL EYES ON GLOBAL: CANADIAN ORIGINAL PRIVATE EYES CAPTURES AN AVERAGE AUDIENCE OF 1.4 MILLION VIEWERS

  • For Two Consecutive Weeks, Private Eyes is the #1 Thursday Night Drama
  • Catch Up on Episodes of Private Eyes on GlobalTV.com and Global Go

Viewers can’t escape Private Eyes, as the latest original Global series delivered an impressive 1.4 million average viewers (2+) with season to date data for the series premiere (May 26) and episode two (June 2). As the #1 drama on both nights, the witty PI series starring Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson as Canada’s latest crime solving duo also won the 9 pm timeslot nationally.

The highly anticipated debut of Private Eyes had viewers buzzing on social media. The premiere episode was a Top 6 trending program Thursday night (May 26) on Twitter in both Canada and the US, with #PrivateEyes trending throughout the first two episodes. Online, Private Eyes continues to increase its audience on GlobalTV.com and Global Go, becoming the top property across both platforms.

On the next episode of Private Eyes (airing Thursday, June 9 at 9 pm ET/PT), Shade and Angie enter the adrenaline-charged world of high stakes horseracing when they are hired by a wealthy couple to track down their stolen prized possession and champion racehorse, Diamond Heist. As Shade and Angie work to find the stolen filly, they are drawn into a world of fixed races, animal activism, and black-market horse breeding. Meanwhile, Shade, never a stellar student, contemplates cheating on his upcoming P.I. exam, because as Angie insists, “no license, no job.”

Private Eyes airs Thursdays at 9 pm ET/PT on Global. Viewers who missed an episode can catch up on Private Eyes following the broadcast the next day on GlobalTV.com and Global Go.

Source: Numeris Canada PPM Data, May 26 + June 2/16, Total Canada, A2+, STD as of June 6/16

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Caught, Featured, Private Eyes, Sensitive Skin, The Council

Comments and queries for the week of June 3

2 Comments

From our mailbag:

Cardinal

All these media releases keep saying Cardinal is CTV’s first ever serialized drama – huh?

References to that six-part murder mystery as “CTV’s first-ever original serialized drama” popped up in CTV’s announcement this week about The Disappearance, which they were billing as their second-ever serialized drama. People with long memories cited 1973’s Starlost as likely the first serialized original drama on the network, with later contenders including Would Be Kings, Associates, Whistler, The City (aka Flesh and Blood) and Power Play. After my inquiry, CTV adjusted the media release on their website to say that Cardinal and The Disappearance are the  first- and second-ever limited run original serialized dramas.  Would Be Kings was a two-part miniseries they’re not including in the definition of “limited run”, but I’ve simply deleted the reference in the media release as published on this site.

Caught/The Council 

Just realized CBC didn’t mention “Caught” in their latest press release about the new season. I wonder what’s up? 

As our questioner saw immediately after tweeting us, Allan Hawco, the star and producer, tweeted that the show will be delayed from the winter 2017 time period originally announced. The Council is another show missing from CBC’s recent season media release, and was originally announced as a fall 2016 newcomer. CBC’s Sally Catto explained that Caught was caught in a financing issue, while The Council has been delayed because of climate and location issues — it was being filmed in Iqaluit and Manitoba.

I think the climate excuse is a crock. The north is the north and the show needs to adapt to what they are given.

Sure, but a few points to consider …

  • Sally Catto was candid about financial issues on Caught, though she could have made a generic comment about production delays for both shows.
  • The originally announced time from greenlight to air was fast in Canadian TV terms.
  • The logistics of shipping everything up to a place that doesn’t have a TV industry infrastructure and that has a very short filming window are not exactly easy (for example Arctic Air had its own short-window issues filming in Yellowknife which isn’t as remote as Iqaluit). It’s not hard for me to believe they ran into location scouting, crewing, shipping, etc. issues and didn’t want to rush the show to air to meet a self-imposed deadline.

We may never know if there were other issues involved as well, but I don’t have any problem believing climate and location was a big one. I also think it’s admirable they want to shoot in the place the series is set rather than faking the Arctic around Vancouver.

Sensitive Skin

Who plays David (silver-haired man) in tonight’s episode of Sensitive Skin (season 2 episode 2, May 29, 2016)? Thanks.

Guest starring in that Kim Cattrall series is Hamilton-born, Edmonton-raised Rick Roberts (pictured above), who also has a starring role in CBC’s This Life (which returns for a second season Sundays this fall). He’s had a long and varied career in Canada and the US so he might look familiar from Republic of Doyle, Traders, Jack (the Jack Layton TV movie), Pontypool or a number of other roles — not always with that distinctive silver hair, of course.

Private Eyes

This seems good, but it just reminds me a bit too much of Republic of Doyle, don’t you think? I didn’t know it was inspired by a book though, so it might be just a coincidence, but I don’t know …

I think if you watch the show you’ll see it has a similar tone to Republic of Doyle but it’s far from a carbon copy.  Given the CBC series isn’t coming back, its fans might find this one scratching a similar itch, though. It’s worth noting that wisecracking detective/cop shows are not rare, especially in Canada — no reason to think there’s a copycat situation going on here.

Wipeout Canada

Just curious how to become an applicant for the show Wipeout Canada.

The show had its first and only season in 2011 on the now-defunct TVropolis channel, so the short answer is you can’t. Actually that’s the long answer too, since even the longer-running U.S. version is now off the air.

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Alias Grace, Featured, Private Eyes, Pure

Comments and queries for the week of May 27

Greg’s away so the Diane mouse will play in this week’s issue of Comments and Queries. Here are answers to questions we got by Twitter, Facebook, emails and comments:

CBC’s new season announcement

Pure is a new new show, do you know? Because the others were ordered last season, no?

CBC’s 2016-17 season announcement snuck in news of this previously unknown (to me) series about the Mennonite mob, which will apparently air in winter 2017. I posted more about it here but in brief, it’s described as “the story of Noah Funk, a newly-elected Mennonite pastor, who is determined to rid his community of drug traffickers by betraying a fellow Mennonite to the police. But instead of solving the problem, Noah’s actions trigger an ultimatum from Menno mob leader Eli Voss: in order to protect his family he must get involved in the illegal operation. Noah decides that if he must work for the mob, he will secretly gather enough evidence to dismantle the organization.”  It’s created by David Macleod (Haven, Call Me Fitz) and Michael Amo (The Listener, Transporter: The Series).

I wonder if This is That, the webseries, is based on the radio show/podcast.

It is indeed. From CBC:  This is That is an award-winning current affairs program that doesn’t just talk about the issues, it fabricates them. Nothing is off-limits — politics, business, culture, justice, science, religion — if it is relevant to Canadians, hosts Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring will find out the “this” and “that” of the story. Each week, they introduce the voices and stories that give this country character in this 100% improvised, satirical send-up of public radio. In a new original digital series, they will be This is That-ing a new range of topics ripe for parody, including autonomous cars, rock-star chefs and thought leaders.

Private Eyes

Has it been picked up in the UK yet?

No word on international pickups yet for the Global series starring Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson but it is produced by global studio eOne so they’re likely to be shopping it around. Stay tuned for any news.

Alias Grace

Which network or channel will this air on?

My cyber-sleuthing has failed me and I have no idea. I have an inquiry out to the production office but the bare bones news we have from the above link seems to originate from production information which lists Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol) as director and Sarah Polley (Stories We Tell, Away from Her) as producer — and we know Polley wrote the mini-series adaptation of the Margaret Atwood novel.

Canadian Pickers

I’m trying to get ahold of Scott and Sheldon, do you know how I can do that?

Canadian Pickers was cancelled a few years ago, so the men are not likely to be answering queries related to the show. However, if you think your question outlives the series, Cineflix was the producer and you could start with them for contact information.

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Private Eyes

Link: Jason Priestley on his busy year

From Bill Brioux of the Canadian Press:

Jason Priestley on his busy year, recruiting Doug Gilmour for ‘Private Eyes’
Jason Priestley sounds as surprised as anyone. “That’s right,” he says. “I’ve never played a detective before.” At 46, the Vancouver-born actor shot to fame over 25 years ago as teen Brandon Walsh on “Beverly Hills, 90210.” His credits actually date back ever farther, with roles in the ’80s on “21 Jump Street,” “Danger Bay” and “MacGyver.” Continue reading.

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