Tag Archives: Saving Hope

Featured, Industry News, Saving Hope

Comments and queries for the week of Sept. 19

2 Comments

How many viewers must a CBC show have (on average) to warrant a renewal? Is there a trend or magic number?—@staceyfarber18

Hey Stacey, thanks for the question and congrats on the Saving Hope gig. Can’t wait for your portrayal of Dr. Sydney Katz this season. Television ratings are complicated at the best of times what with the advent of live +7 ratings being taken into account thanks to PVRs and the fact that every network has different expectations from others.

I’m not saying the following are the case at the CBC, but there is certainly concern for a series that garners under 500,000 viewers per week. Another factor may be what a network has lined up in development or already in production; if the thought is that something new may grab viewers more than what’s currently on the air, that can spell the end of a series. An older-skewing television show with lower ratings is always going to be a target for cancellation before one comfortably in the 18-49 demo, a.k.a. the sweet spot for advertisers. And sometimes showrunners or stars decide that it’s time to move on to other things.

I am looking for all three series of Paradise Falls on DVD.—Gary

I have some bad news for you Gary. Paradise Falls, which lasted for three seasons on Showcase, is currently unavailable for purchase on DVD.

While I would be happy to see any of these three remaining Amazing Race Canada teams win, I have to applaud Meaghan and Natalie for showing what true sportsmanship is all about. You did not mention in this article that the brother and sister had lost their clue with important information on the task. They asked other teams to help, and I suspect after the manner they had played the last few weeks two of the three other teams were not interested in providing an assist. The hockey ladies chose to share their clue, and possibly put themselves in jeopardy as they had not completed the task yet. These two are already winners in my mind.–Trina

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Awards, Featured, Saving Hope

Esta Spalding on her WGC Screenwriting Award Nomination for Saving Hope

Esta SpaldingThis year’s Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award winners will be announced on April 22. We’ve been catching up with many of the writers nominated in the comedy and drama categories. Saving Hope‘s Esta Spalding was nominated for her episode “Bea, Again”.

Can you describe the episode “Bea, Again” and how it fit into the Saving Hope season?

The episode “Bea, Again” was the episode of Saving Hope that came after the three week break the series had taken so that CTV could air the Olympics.  Right before the break, in episode 8, there was a very big cliffhanger:  Charlie (a lead character who has been in a coma since the first episode and has been walking around the hospital as a ghost) is unplugged from life support.  Alex, his fiancee, is devastated.  In my episode, Charlie has to survive this process.  The plug is pulled in episode 8, but he needs to be hanging between life and death and only declared alive at the end of episode 9.  Now, in real life, once the plug is pulled you either live or die.  So the challenge was to make that process last for a TV-hour without having it last for an actual hour.  I also knew that dramatically Alex needed to be with Charlie, at his bedside, but that the show’s mandate was for her to have a high-stakes medical case each week. How could I do both things?  It was such a strange, challenging crossword puzzle.  Maybe because of my background as a poet, I found all of the limitations really energizing and I came up with a very fun structure and story.

What does this recognition mean to you?

This recognition means so much to me.  There’s no higher honor than to be honored by your peers — your fellow writers in the trenches. I am thrilled to have been nominated.

If there was one Canadian show that is no longer on the air that you could see honored at this year’s awards, what would it be? (If you have a specific episode, even better).

I’ve been watching Aaron Sorkin’s Newsroom show on HBO and thinking how much better Semi Chellas’s Eleventh Hour was.  There was always great critical acclaim for that show, but I wish that show had found a larger audience while it was on the air.  It’s a show I’d still be happy to be writing for, all these years later.

Saving Hope season one airs Saturday nights on CTV Two. Season two is slated to air this summer.

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