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| Paul Bates gets the bad news |
Dan for Mayor has been voted out at CTV. Executive producer Mark Farrell confirms that the second year comedy has not been renewed for a third season at the broadcaster. There is no confirmation yet that the same fate befell CTV’s other domestic comedy, Hiccups.
The two shows were launched to high expectations and even higher ratings right after the Vancouver Olympic Games early in 2010. There was nowhere to go but down after those staggering debuts, which came in a two million viewers each.
The constant Olympic promos may have done more harm than good. With Dan star Fred Ewanuick paired in ads with Nancy Robertson and Brent Butt, viewers were led to believe that Dan for Mayor and Hiccups was one big hour-long spin-off of Corner Gas.
Ewanuick tweeted his disappointment today, especially since he felt his series was really hitting its stride in Season Two.
Farrell says he kind of knew Dan was in tough when CTV waited until this summer to return both shows to their schedule–and then put his comedy in a Sunday at 7:30 slot. Still, surprisingly, Dan for Mayor outperformed Hiccups at 8:30 on average this summer, pulling around 450,000 viewers. The finale topped the half million mark a week ago with very little promotion.
Farrell is shopping his series to other networks in an effort to extend the series beyond its two-year run. Certainly Rogers, which has been rerunning their one domestic drama Murdoch Mysteries five times a week throughout the summer in an effort to catch up with their Can-con quotas, would seem like a potential partner. Dan for Mayor would seem at home behind one of the American sitcoms Rogers’owned City currently has on its schedule, such as How I Met Your Mother or New Girl.
The departure of former CTV executives Ivan Fecan and Susanne Boyce may also have left Dan without a champion at the network. Farrell says he was grateful for a second season at least, he just wishes it had aired sooner and not in a 7:30 slot. Both his show and Hiccups went into production in plenty of time for CTV to return them in January. When that didn’t happen–and failed U.S. sitcoms such as Matthew Perry’s Mr. Sunshine got those berths instead–Farrell figured the odds looked long for a third term for Dan for Mayor.
Still–can the show stay alive on another network? Options on the talent will run out soon, but if Rogers is looking for a short cut to Can-con credibility, well, stranger things have happened in Canadian television.
1 Comment
D’uh, Sundays at 7:30 p.m.? That’s The Beachcombers old CBC timeslot! DfM simply negected its romantic storyline in its opening two episodes this season.