If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and if it’s 2 Broke Girls bring it back. That seems to be the motto Rogers Media used when putting together Citytv’s 2012-13 season, judging by its upfront presentation in Toronto on Tuesday.
The lineup is loaded with returning shows. As Scott Moore, president of broadcast at Rogers Media, said during his address to the crowd at Massey Hall, two-thirds of the programs Rogers executives bought last year at the L.A. upfronts for that fall schedule are back this year.
Many of them are comedies; in addition to 2 Broke Girls, returning comedies from last season include New Girl, Suburgatory, Last Man Standing and Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23.
The network’s fall lineup also includes four new situational comedies. Ben and Kate, which EVP, television programming and operations Malcolm Dunlop called “a comedy that clicks on every level,” follows the lives of a grown-up brother and sister whose lives intertwine when a quirky-yet-caring older brother steps in to help out with his niece. (Classic line from the clip shown at the upfront: Ben’s judgment of his sister’s love interest based on an awkward greeting: “I high-fived him. I did not like it.”)
Partners is about how the tumultuous love lives of two best buddies and business partners impact their friendship. Dunlop said he and Moore “knew right away” they wanted to buy the show, which is based on the lives of the co-creators of Will & Grace.
The Mindy Project, which will air Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m., is what Dunlop called “the perfect companion to The New Girl,” which airs right before it. The Mindy Project stars The Office’s Mindy Kaling as a doctor bent on improving her scattered personal life.
Rounding out the new comedies is Malibu Country, a show about a newly divorced go-getter (played by Reba McEntire) that moves her kids and no-nonsense mother (Lily Tomlin) from Nashville to California to try and become a country music queen. Dunlop said “When we watched this show [during the upfronts], Keith Pelley told me ‘You’ve got to buy Reba.’”
Mid-season will also be heavy on the comedy front. Its batch of five new comedies include The Goodwin Games, 1600 Penn, How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life), Seed and Package Deal.
Those last two shows are Canadian-produced, Citytv original comedies. As Moore said, Rogers is proud that “Citytv has become a substantial player” in Canadian production.
In addition to those shows, Citytv is bringing another Canadian production to air this fall: The Bachelor Canada. The reel shown at the upfront included all of the elements of a solid Bachelor episode: a romantic stroll on the beach with bachelor football player Brad Smith, horseback riding, plenty of roses and a crying jag in a washroom. The show will be hosted by Tyler Harcott (Junkyard Wars, Miss America: Countdown to the Crown). Dunlop said of its Wednesday 9:30 p.m. ET timeslot “We’ve given The Bachelor Canada the premier slot.”
After the Bachelor reel, Mitch Dent, EVP of television sales, spoke of the audiences Citytv is attracting. The demo is young, urban and educated. “If you want to target 55-plus, don’t buy us,” he said.
Just as vital as Citytv’s viewers is its reach, said Pelley. Citytv is getting closer to its longstanding goal of becoming a true national player, as he noted that it is also now in Saskatchewan, the interior of British Columbia, Quebec and – thanks partly to a deal announced Tuesday – Eastern Canada. (Moore said in a release that this expanded footprint will put Citytv in nine million homes this fall.)
“We want [our distribution] to be exactly the same as CTV and Global,” said Pelley.
He also mentioned that going forward, the broadcaster can no longer “produce content just for a linear platform.” To that end, he said that the reality competition show Canada’s Got Talent has taught Rogers that “you have to be willing to take risks.” That meant going multiplatform and putting footage shot during the audition process online as well as in the TV program.
Pelley also mentioned the L’Oreal Canada-sponsored made-for-web series Canada’s Best Beauty Talent and called it an example of “the future” in this multiplatform media environment.
Dent later said Citytv’s digital traffic, web and mobile views are “way up.” As such, Citytv will be offering The New Girl and The Middle – both of which have strong social media followings – to advertisers on all four screens as one buy with the same commercial inventory.
Also on the multiplatform theme, Pelley mentioned The Shopping Channel and how sales of the Genie Bra, umm, lifted by 17% when they started promoting it using a multiplatform approach.
But back to the shape of Citytv’s upcoming lineup. Along with the proven shows is a collection of new offerings. Katie Couric warmed up the upfront attendees with a “Go, Jays, go” and explained that her new talk show, Katie (premiering this fall airing weekdays at 4 p.m. ET in simulcast) will cover everything from how technology affects relationships to interviews with the cast of blockbuster movies. “We want to make this show smart and engaging,” she said.
Simulcast was one of the buzzwords of the day at the upfront and the subsequent social event at the Hard Rock Café. All told, Citytv’s fall primetime schedule includes 20 series that will air in simulcast. There’s also an increased number of simulcasts over on sister network Omni Television this fall, including news show Rock Center with Brian Williams and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Back to Citytv, where two new primetime dramas for fall are Revolution (J.J. Abrams is one of the creators and executive producers of the action/adventure show about what would happen if the world lost all electricity) and 666 Park Avenue (a creepy series that Dunlop said reminded him of Rosemary’s Baby).
The new mid-season dramas on Citytv are The Carrie Diaries (which follows the younger life of Sex and The City‘s Carrie Bradshaw) and Hannibal (a look at the serial killer psychiatrist).
These new shows will join a lineup that also includes familiar shows such as Scandal, Revenge and Person of Interest.
Addressing the dynamic of building on successful returning shows, Dent said all of the shows Citytv is bringing back had bigger audiences at the end of last year than when they started. “Building television audiences is a momentum game and we have momentum,” he said.
Citytv is a part of Rogers Broadcasting Limited, a division of Rogers Communications Inc. Marketing is also owned by Rogers.
