“Mid-season is becoming a more and more important part of the story,” says Barbara Williams, senior vice-president, content, Shaw Media.
Global's Bomb Girls
While three of the six shows Global debuted last fall have been cancelled, Williams says the broadcaster relies on the continuing strength of returning shows like Survivor, Hawaii Five-O, Glee and House to keep audiences tuning in. The fall shows that didn’t fare so well: Dave Foley’s How to be a Gentleman, Jonah Hill’s animated series Allen Gregory and the highly anticipated Prime Suspect. Despite receiving favourable reviews, NBC cancelled the cop drama after it failed to find an audience.
“It’s no secret we would have expected Prime Suspect to do better than it did,” says Williams.
Comedy series I Hate My Teenage Daughter, which debuted in the fall, was renewed for another six episodes, says Williams, though she’s not sure when they’ll air.
The four returning shows mentioned above, however, were among the top 10 series on Canadian television among adults 18 – 49 during the 2011 fall season. Global came second only to ratings leader CTV and its sister station CTV2, which nabbed five of the 10 spots.
Global has a “real strong slate of shows that have come back so powerfully year after year and we knew that was going to be our strength this fall and it delivered exactly as expected,” says Williams.
Global has paid particular attention in recent years to building the 10 p.m. timeslot, though Williams admits it’s a task that can’t be “accomplished overnight.” Part of the primetime strategy meant adding dramas like The Good Wife (now in its third season) to give a boost to Sunday nights. In an interesting move last fall, Global picked up Harry’s Law and Parenthood, two shows dropped by Citytv.
“We knew we could position those shows to be more successful,” says Williams, citing “better lead-ins” and robust marketing efforts for what Global considers strong performances for the two shows.
New to Global’s winter schedule is Bones spin-off The Finder as well as The Firm, which pulled in 1.1 million total viewers for its two-hour debut (beating a new episode of CTV’s Desperate Housewives by 8% among adults 18 – 49, according to BBM Canada). Another addition to the schedule is Touch (March 19 at 9 p.m.) starring Kiefer Sutherland in his first television role since fan favourite 24. Sutherland plays a widowed father struggling to raise an autistic son on his own.
“Touch is going to be one of our huge shows this spring,” says Williams. “It’s the one we’re most excited about at the moment.”
In April, Global welcomes the Robert DeNiro-produced police drama NYC22 to its lineup. New comedies to the mid-season schedule include Are You There, Chelsea (premiered Jan. 18) and the animated series Napoleon Dynamite (premiered Jan. 15).
The broadcaster also strengthened its mid-season primetime lineup with the homespun drama Bomb Girls. Set in the 1940s, Bomb Girls stars Oscar nominee Meg Tilly as a supervisor at a Toronto munitions factory during the Second World War. The series, which was commissioned by Shaw Media and produced by Muse Entertainment and Back Alley Films, premiered with a bang (sorry) Jan. 4 with 1.6 million viewers (2+, national), according to BBM Canada. On Feb. 7 Global announced it was extending the series by 12 episodes.
“We know Canadians love the big American shows and we’re not trying to move away from them,” says Williams. “We know they’re an important part of the schedule, but we prove over and over again like we just did with Bomb Girls that we can make great, well-produced, high-production value, great storytelling all on our own in Canada and we can put it out there and viewers will love it.”
Mid-Season Scorecard
[click to enlarge]
Stay Tuned
What viewers can expect from the spring and summer lineup
NYC22
(simulcast with CBS)
The police drama from executive producer and Academy Award winner Robert De Niro follows six NYPD rookies from different backgrounds as they “patrol the gritty streets of upper Manhattan,” according to CBS. The show stars Terry Kinney, Adam Goldberg, Leelee Sobieski and Stark Sands. Premieres April 15 at 10 p.m., a week after CSI: Miami wraps up its season.
Titanic
(U.K.-Hungary-Canada co-production)
The four-part drama penned by Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes (the man behind the hugely successful and critically acclaimed period drama Downton Abbey) airs this spring, 100 years after the sinking of the luxury ocean liner. The show will focus on the lives of different characters ranging from “steerage passengers to upper-class guests,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Premiere date TBD.
Canada Sings
Back for a second season is the one-hour homegrown reality series that challenges Canadians to form workplace glee clubs and compete against other teams in front of a live studio audience. Both teams work closely with vocal coaches and choreographers. The winning club receives a donation to the charity of its choice. Last year the teams performed for judges Vanilla Ice, Jann Arden and Pierre Bouvier. The judging panel and host for the second season have yet to be announced.
