During his opening remarks at CTV’s fall season upfront presentation last June, Bell Media president Kevin Crull read part of a letter he’d received from Ivan Fecan, the former president of CTVglobemedia Inc. who retired from the company after the CTV/Bell deal was finalized.
“I left you with the No. 1 network… don’t fuck it up,” wrote Fecan. Crull was told to share the letter with Phil King, CTV’s newly appointed president, programming and sports. So far so good for King.
CTV's The River
CTV presented 16 new shows to the media that day, 12 of which debuted in the fall and the network remains the ratings leader, though Global isn’t far behind.
This, however, can still be attributed to the work of Fecan and Susanne Boyce, who had overseen the broadcaster’s programming for more than a decade. CTV had five of the top 10 series on Canadian television among adults 18 – 49 during the fall 2011 season with returning series Big Bang Theory, Grey’s Anatomy, Amazing Race 19, CSI and Two and a Half Men.
While King and his team inherited a respectable lineup, it wasn’t without its flaws. One area King was looking to improve was the Tuesday-night schedule when CTV went head-to-head with Global TV’s Glee and NCIS: Los Angeles.
“We were weaker last year than we would have liked to have been on Tuesdays… We lost all three timeslots so we deliberately wanted to get a 10 o’clock show,” says King, referring to the Los Angeles screenings last year. To fill that 10 p.m. window, CTV purchased CBS crime drama Unforgettable starring Poppy Montgomery (Without a Trace) and Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck). The show debuted Sept. 20 with more than 1.7 million viewers.
Another show CTV purchased for the 10 p.m. timeslot was Pan Am, which aired on Sundays until Feb. 19. While it was a hit with Canadian viewers (1.9 million-plus tuned in for the premiere), it failed to resonate stateside. ABC is expected to officially cancel the show later this year.
“That’s the oddity of the Canadian broadcast industry,” says King. “If you have a show that works in Canada but doesn’t work in the U.S., too bad for you, it’s not going to last.”
$#*! My Dad Says, starring William Shatner, suffered the same fate last year. “Canadians seemed to like it, Americans didn’t like it, so down it went,” says King.
Other short-lived series on the fall schedule included ABC’s Charlie’s Angels, Free Agents and Man Up!
Canadian broadcasters are slaves to U.S. schedules, says King. If an American network moves a show to another night or a different time, Canadian broadcasters are usually forced to follow suit. One way to develop a flexible schedule is to produce more homespun content. “We can move it around as we see fit, we can pair it tonally with a similar show to get a good lead-in audience or lead-out,” says King. Also, with Canadian content, CTV can repeat it as often as it wants without having to pay for it or clear it by “various guilds and actor unions,” says King.
CTV has done well with Canadian-produced shows such as Flashpoint and The Listener and this summer will introduce medical drama Saving Hope to its schedule (see “Stay Tuned,” page 47). King says he and his team will soon sit down to weed through series proposals and “hopefully green-light a couple of pilots and we can get a lot going in the pipeline.”
Adding to the stable of reality-based singing competitions was Simon Cowell’s X Factor, which debuted in September with 2.2 million viewers. Returning for its second season Feb. 5 was American talent show The Voice, which premiered with 2.4 million viewers, according to data from BBM Canada.
Additions to the mid-season lineup include Steven Spielberg’s musical drama Smash starring Anjelica Huston and Debra Messing, The River, Missing (March 15 at 8 p.m.) and G.C.B. (March 4 at 10 p.m.).
CTV also continues to drive ratings with popular award shows and sporting events like the Academy Awards, the Juno Awards and the Super Bowl, which this year drew a record 8.1 million total Canadian viewers (a 12% increase over 2011) on CTV and its French-language sports channel RDS.
Mid-Season Scorecard
[click to enlarge]
STAY TUNED
What viewers can expect from the spring and summer lineup.
Anger Management
After being fired from his hit series Two and a Half Men last year for erratic behaviour, Charlie Sheen is back with the FX comedy Anger Management (based on the Adam Sandler/Jack Nicholson film of the same name). Sheen will play a counsellor named Charlie, who has an ex-wife (Shawnee Smith), a 13-year-old daughter and his own therapist (film actress Selma Blair). Premiere date TBD.
London 2012 Olympics
As part of the Olympic Broadcast Consortium, CTV will cover the 17-day event that kicks off July 27. Veteran sports broadcaster Brian Williams will anchor the Games.
Saving Hope
The Canadian medical drama revolves around a chief of surgery who suddenly takes ill, leaving a Toronto hospital in chaos and his doctor wife in shock. The show is inspired by a series of short stories written by Globe and Mail columnist Ian Brown that take place in Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. NBC is said to be eyeing the show, which stars Erica Durance (Smallville) and Michael Shanks (Flashpoint), for its summer schedule. Premieres this spring.
