Canadian Idol is being put on the shelf in 2009, CTV announced Tuesday.
The program finished its sixth season this fall and remained a Canadian TV ratings monster, scoring an average of 1.47 million viewers in September.
However, it appears CTV has elected to not produce the costly reality show in a year when advertising revenues are expected to drop sharply.
The program change would preserve cash as the network braces for a recession.
“As a result of the current economic climate, production of Canadian Idol will rest for the 2009 broadcast year,” said the statement.
CTV said it isn’t cancelling the popular show, noting that versions of Idol in Russia, Germany and the Netherlands each took “rests” and returned for another season.
Idol staff were told of the decision on Monday after CTV informed the show’s producer, Insight Productions, that the program was being put on hold.
“I think it’s a shame,” said ZenithOptimedia Canada president and CEO Sunni Boot, whose client, L’Oréal, was an early sponsor of the show. “Canadian Idol is a high quality Canadian production enhancing the international template and permitting strong organic advertiser participation.” But it is also pretty expensive to produce and CTV may been having a hard time getting sponsors to renew, she theorized.
“I think it will come back, because even though it is expensive, it may [cost] less than picking up 60 minutes of scripted drama from U.S. distributors.”
Idol judge Zack Werner told the Toronto Star he was told the show would be resting. “You can call that whatever you want. There was no official definition given to me of what the word ‘resting’ means.”
Werner told the Star that despite Idol’s popularity he was always under the impression the show’s future was murky.
The network is retaining the rights to the series.
CTV’s announcement comes a week after the popular So You Think You Can Dance Canada wrapped up its first season. —Canadian Press with files from Chris Powell
