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CBC unveils 2012-13 season

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From a media release:

CBC LAUNCHES 2012-13 SEASON ANCHORED IN STRONG, PROVEN, CANADIAN PROGRAMMING

  • Canada’s Public Broadcaster continues to move forward, serving Canadians in new ways amid new funding realities

Building on one of its most successful seasons ever, CBC today unveiled its 2012-13 broadcast season. Anchored by a roster of strong, proven, made-in-Canada programs across all platforms, the public broadcaster is celebrating its successes while continuing to move forward on its strategic plan to serve Canadians in dynamic new ways.

New this season:

Fans of GEORGE STROUMBOULOPOULOS TONIGHT are getting an extra chance to spend quality time with their “boyfriend,” as Canada’s late night talk show adds an early airing at 7 p.m. (7:30 NT) weeknights starting in September, in addition to his regular 11:05 p.m. (11:35 NT) slot.

Among the new entries, OVER THE RAINBOW recaptures the competitive and theatrical magic from our previous venture with the Mirvish Productions. This time, dozens of young hopefuls will vie for the coveted role of Dorothy in the Canadian premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new production of The Wizard of Oz.

TITANIC: BLOOD AND STEEL is an epic mini-series from the producers of CAMELOT and THE TUDORS, taking us inside the stories behind the nautical disaster that still haunts us 100 years later.

And CRACKED is a slick new crime hour-long drama with a psychological twist, inspired by the real life experiences of front-line police officers and mental-health workers.

CBC-TV’s prime time lineup is a stellar schedule of proven Canadian successes. ARCTIC AIR, the hit show which debuted to the largest audience for a drama in 15 years, will fly high again; MR D., the smash hit from comedian Gerry Dee will be back in class for a second season; REPUBLIC OF DOYLE keeps the action hot on the rock, and DRAGONS’ DEN will continue to roar its way through the ratings, welcoming Wealthy Barber author David Chilton into the den; and family favourite HEARTLAND remains a Sunday night staple.

MARKETPLACE and the fifth estate consistently drew some of their largest audiences ever last season and, with THE NATURE OF THINGS and DOC ZONE, they will continue to raise the bar for CBC’s public affairs programming in 2012-13.

This is a milestone season for several treasured CBC programs: the 60th anniversary of CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA; the 40th anniversary of MARKETPLACE; the 30th anniversary of the JUST FOR LAUGHS comedy festival; and we celebrate 20 years of laughter on 22 MINUTES and a decade of THE RICK MERCER REPORT.

In keeping with CBC’s 2015 plan to better connect communities in new and innovative ways, CBC is proud to announce the imminent launch of a new local news service for the city of Hamilton. CBC’s first entirely digital station, www.CBCHamilton.ca and its team of reporters and writers will provide Hamilton and area residents with the finest in local news coverage, connecting them with their neighbourhood, their city and their country in a new and innovative way. It’s a bold, cutting-edge approach to local news in a city that is transforming itself in the same ways. More new local digital services are being planned to connect other communities across Canada.

Quality, engaging, entertaining television. Radio voices that connect Canadians to their neighbourhoods and to each other from coast to coast to coast. Digital services that enhance and inspire. News and current affairs of unparalleled depth, and the greatest coverage of our national sport and countless other special events. That’s what a modern public broadcaster offers – that’s the CBC in 2012-13.

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Dramas and Comedies, Featured

Not an Industry Update – Of Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, and Picnicface

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It’s upfront season now, both in the United States and Canada. Attention turns to which Canadian dramas and comedies survive into 2012-13. There are already surprising cancellations, such as SPACE dropping Todd and the Book of Pure Evil after its second season, though TBPE‘s producers wish to keep the show alive. The Comedy Network’s Picnicface is also among the cancelled, and Picnicface troupe members won’t take this cancellation lying down.

Todd and the Book of Pure Evil creator/showrunner Craig David Wallace recently admitted that the show’s SPACE ratings weren’t high enough for the channel to approve a third season. Its runs on MuchMusic and The Comedy Network, a run on American horror cable channel FEARnet, plus its DVD releases on both sides of the border, suggest that it still has a healthy audience. When Todd and the Book of Pure Evil‘s first season was rerun on The Comedy Network last summer, TBPE was that network’s top Canadian show.

Picnicface, another Bell Media cull, earned soft ratings in first run…but that might be due to The Comedy Network’s practice of reairing the same episode multiple times a week, as CanCon filler. On YouTube, videos from Picnicface‘s first season regularly earn 20,000 or more views. A couple have more than 100,000 views. Stupidly, those videos are geoblocked for non-Canadians.

The Canada Media Fund alloted Picnic Pictures Inc. $624,000 for Picnicface‘s thirteen-episode first season. (PDF) Even if the CMF money is a fraction of Picnicface‘s budget, it’s still a low-budget show. By comparison, the Canada Media Fund alloted $5,415,000 to Todd and the Book of Pure Evil‘s second season. (PDF) TBPE is the bigger risk, and is harder to defend on a purely financial level.

On the flip side, I can’t think of any current shows in TBPE‘s genre, adult-oriented horror-comedy set in a high school. TBPE arguably takes Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s lead, yet TBPE is more rooted in horror conventions, metal, and being the anti-Degrassi. There’s almost nothing else like it in Canada. Bite’s The Cutting Room is a horror-comedy series, but comparing it to TBPE is like comparing apples and a lawnmower.

I think Bell Media underestimates the interest in Picnicface and Todd and the Book of Pure Evil. Canadian shows do fall through the cracks sometimes. One only needs to look at Combat Hospital‘s cancellation to figure that out – 1.5 million viewers in Canada, yet the show was done in by high costs, and a weak American showing on ABC. Luckily, some Canadian shows find life after death – Shaw Media/Showcase’s Endgame underperformed on that channel last year, and has since found a more receptive home on Hulu – enough that Hulu might commission its second season.

A sub-billion-dollar PBIT, on $3.7 billion in 2011 revenues, suggests that Canadian broadcasters are in decent shape. At the same time, killing shows like Todd and the Book of Pure Evil and Picnicface after one or two seasons does nothing for the Canadian television industry. It might not be obvious now, but these shows could be to the 2010s what Trailer Park Boys and Corner Gas are to the 2000s.

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