This week, Scott claims he’s living in Happy Town. That’s the spooky new “Twin Peaks”-like series premiering tonight on ABC and /A. Actually, Happy Town was shot on the other side of Toronto, Port Hope, Ontario. Scott lives in Steel Town, which might also made for a good TV series.
We also talk about today’s announcement that Canwest is launching the Global Reality Channel, another specialty service crammed full of reruns. 
The station, already cleared to a million Rogers’ VIP subscribers, will likely launch mid-June. It’s long overdue at Global, which has feasted off Survivor for a decade. The current “Heroes vs. Villains” edition is still a force in Canada, topping the most recent BBM Canada national weekly ratings, beating even hockey playoffs.
The only thing is, reality shows are like those new KFC Double Down Chicken Sandwiches–they don’t repeat well. Once you know who won a particular edition of Fear Factor or The Apprentice, are you really going to sit through it again? isn’t that what Wikipedia is for?
The Fox Reality Channel, which launched when this genre was hotter five years ago, bombed in the States. The service was shut down last month and has just been rebranded National Geographic Wild. The tribe has spoken.
Maybe Global will have better luck. Besides, as the recent CRTC specialty profit summary shows, if you can find any way to get in on the carriage fee gravy train in Canada, you can still drink from the money tap and–thanks to Canadian content loopholes bigger than that chicken sandwich–it will hardly cost you anything.
You can listen in here.
advertisement