It’s a place of high crime, imminent danger, SWAT teams and nervous rookie cops–and it has the U.S. television press talking. The place? Canada. And American media watchers are raising a collective eyebrow at the growing trend of Canadian-produced cop shows making their way south for the summer.
In recent days, the New York Times, Boston Globe and Advertising Age have addressed the issue of U.S. networks using cheaply produced (read: Canadian) scripted shows to fill out their usually lean summer offerings. The trend began with CTV‘s Flashpoint during the writers’ strike in 2007/2008, when the show was picked up by CBS. It’s now in its third season, airing on both networks. Flashpoint was the first Canadian show to also air in the U.S. since Due South did it for one season in 1994.
This summer, there are four Canadian shows airing south of the border, three of which–Flashpoint, The Bridge (CBS) and Rookie Blue (ABC)–are police dramas. The fourth is the CBC‘s comedy 18 to Life, about two young people who elope and then deal with the family follies and romantic issues that follow, which will air on The CW network.
Why so many Canadian shows? Well, it’s not necessarily about the quality or number of viewers delivered, according to these reports. As cable networks like HBO and AMC roll out new seasons of popular shows in the summer–True Blood and Mad Men, for example–broadcast networks aim to keep up with original content of their own.
The summer season is traditionally a ratings wasteland, so when a show like Rookie Blue can be bought for as little as a reported $350,000 an episode (according to the Times‘ Brian Stelter, networks typically pay a license fee well above $1 million an episode) and still get decent ratings, it’s a win-win.
Of course, the definition of decent ratings tends to change with the seasons. As Ad Age‘s Brian Steinberg points out, Rookie Blue has captured between 6.2 million and 7.2 million viewers for ABC, less than cancelled programs such as FlashForward, Three Rivers and Ghost Whisperer had against stiffer fall competition.
The Canadian cop show airs in the time slot normally reserved for ABC hit Grey’s Anatomy, which averages nearly 14.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen. But Rookie Blue has done well enough to outperform repeats and competing content to already be renewed for a second season.
So, is this a sign of increased quality in Canadian TV or a simple acknowledgement that shows made here on the cheap can compete with American cable also-rans like TNT’s Memphis Beat? Should Canadian producers be high-fiving themselves because their shows have made it to American TV’s B-List? The Boston Globe‘s Alex Beam doesn’t think so. In yesterday’s column entitled “Copping Out in Canada,” he calls Flashpoint “gratuitously violent and stupid,” and despite quite liking The Bridge, he complains that as a fan of traditional Canadian TV like Slings and Arrows and The Newsroom, seeing Canada “lowering itself to our level is depressing.”
The deals with U.S. broadcasters allow Canadian producers to “put more money on the screen,” Susanne Boyce, president for creative, content and channels for CTV, told the Times. That and, as Stelter also says, a strong showing in the U.S. can raise the value of a show in other international markets, where Canadian producers often recoup their costs. As long as they keep delivering ratings, whether there’s a badge involved or not, it’s reasonable to expect the deals sending Canadian entertainment south to continue.
