Usually the titles of the new TV shows Canadian networks buy every year are guarded like a military secret. Journalists have had to sign non-disclosure agreements in the past just to get into the Toronto upfronts.
Hats off, then, to CTV for just putting it out there. On Friday, they released the names of the 11 titles they’d picked up Tuesday at the LA screenings.
CTV president Phil King said before the screenings he’d be gunning for more super hero shows given the success his network has enjoted with both Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and Arrow. So no surprise that CTV has snagged rights to Gotham, the new Batman prequel from Warners Television, as well as ABC’s’ SHIELD companion Marvel’s Agent Carter, a film noir-ish period piece.
CTV also nabbed The Flash, giving them three of the four new super hero shows. (The other being NBC’s Hellblazer saga Constantine.)
Another strategic pick up was How To Get Away With Murder (starring Viola Davis), allowing CTV to simulcast ABC’s entire Thursday night lineup of Shonda Rhimes serial dramas.
CTV kept its CSI streak alive with the new CBS entry CSI: Cyber starring Patricia Arquette and Gil Bellows. They also picked up John Ridley’s American Crime, with Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton among the ensemble; the thriller Secrets and Lies, featuring Juliette Lewis; the fantasy procedural Forever, starring Ioan Gruffudd and Judd Hirsh; NBC’s The Mysteries of Laura starring Debra Messing and the CBS family comedy The McCarthys. Booked for mid-season is Matthew Perry’s latest comeback attempt, The Odd Couple.
advertisement
Look for Global to follow suit shortly with a release announcing its pickup of NCIS: New Orleans starring Scott Bakula.
4 Comments
If we count iZombie as a “superhero” show (Vertigo printed it from 2010-12 – it’s a DC-related comic book title, at least), that makes five shows. Still, three out of five is a healthy figure.
Hey Bill,
Interesting round-up. One small quibble: Agents of SHIELD & Agent Carter are based on Marvel Comics properties, not DC Comics. Gotham, Flash & Constantine are DC properties.
Holy fact check! I’ll fix, thanks.
Constantine had the best trailer of any of the new shows and I’m surprised CTV didn’t pick it up, even to air it on Space. Arrow is usually a top 15 show every week on Canada and given the right timeslot/channel, I can see The Flash doing that good too. Its too bad the shows are on CW down south. I’ve always flocked to CW shows myself and I could never understand why that network could never get good ratings.
When it comes to the Canadian upfronts, I’m curious what shows CTV will relegate to CTV2, Space, Bravo, M3, Much or MTV–where will they put The Voice? Plus what will Global relegate to Showcase? CityTV has the schedule I’m most eager to see. Rogers Media stated their intentions previously to launch a Sunday night hockey block on CityTV, with games appearing sporadically on other nights. If that’s still the case, what will happen to their Sunday shows like Revenge? And where will all the networks slot their Canadian shows?