CBC and star/executive producer Allan Hawco will jointly announce Thursday in Toronto that Republic of Doyle will shut down production at the end of the coming season.
Hawco and cast members Kristin Pellerin, Lynda Boyd, Sean McGinley, Mark O’Brien and Martha Bernard are all in Toronto Thursday along with other network stars attending CBC’s 2014-15 Season Preview at the Canadian Broadcast Centre.
Production begins next week in St. John’s, Newfoundland on a shorter, 10-episode sixth season (down from 16 the season before). After they are wrapped in September, the Doyles will be out of business. The final season will air in the fall.
Hawco acknowledged it was time to move on when I spoke with him two weeks ago in St. John’s. He was just back from South Africa where he was shooting scenes for the upcoming CBC miniseries The Book of Negroes.
The father-and-son P.I. series had been a steady 1.1 million mid-week draw on CBC, soaring to a high of 1.36 million viewers for the Third Season premiere featuring Oscar-winner Russell Crowe. A shift to Sundays last season hurt the series’ ratings momentum, however. There it was up against The Oscars, Grammys, Super Bowls and other special event programming as well as the highly competitive private network lineups. CBC was further overwhelmed on Sundays against stiff competition from cable fare such as The Walking Dead, with PBS’s Downton Abbey siphoning off even more viewers. While the series remains one of the networks biggest draws among viewers who PVR and watch later the same week, its overnight tally had sunk to about half its peak audience.
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It didn’t help that a strike-shortened NHL schedule the season before robbed the network of its biggest promotional platform heading into a January start.
New CBC programming chief Heather Conway has indicated that the public network, struggling to re-invent itself in the face of budget cuts and the permanent loss of hockey revenue, is moving in a different direction. A detective series like Doyle will probably be left to Canada’s private networks to produce under her watch.
Hawco was starting to feel the pinch of producing a weekly action hour with many actors “from away.” St. John’s offers great local colour and scenery, but flying supporting actors in from Toronto, Vancouver or Hollywood to The Rock every week was never cheap. The end of this sixth season will bring the number of episodes to 77, far exceeding the 65 generally needed to syndicate a series.
Hawco and his Take the Shot production partners are developing other projects to take advantage of the television industry sound stage and infrastructure base they’ve established in St. John’s with the help of provincial funding. A western, based on local cowboy exploits, is already in the planning stages as is an animated series. The company also currently produces Majumder Manor for the W network.
And don’t put the GTO up on blocks just yet. Hawco says he’s also open to playing Jake Doyle in future TV-movie projects.
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I love republic of doyel its the only show i watch
The only show?
moving on up but happy for the cast in that they’ll find life a little easier. I’m sure all of Newfoundland and Labrador wish all the staff of Doyal a happy life in whatever comes next.
Wow.
I’m really sorry to hear this. I’ve been a big fan of Doyle since it premiered.
I know all things come to an end, but I was really hoping for a few more years of the show.
TV movies could work ok, though, if the logistics came together. Worked great for Garner’s Rockford Files revival a number of years back…
The Republic of Doyle has been a fantastic vehicle to promote St. John’s to people who probably wouldn’t get exposed to our province. I left home in 1970 but my heart is still in Newfoundland. Thanks Allan Hawko and cast!
Sad to see Republic of Doyle end .
Love the show and was always proud to remind the “Come from aways” that it was ” made right here”.
I’ve watched since the beginning and I’m glad it got the time it did. I’m happy that it’s getting a 10-episode final season to end things properly.
I loved the show !sorry to see it go makes me proud to be a Newfoundlander
I love Republic of doyle and it will be sorely missed. I hate reality TV and I love this PI and the humor in the show. Great Characters lots of heart.
love the show but i think the creators probably see the writing on the wall for CBC. after losing HNIC and many of its other more popular shows i think the days of Canada’s beloved broadcaster are numbered.
agreed!
Maybe they’ll get more viewers now that they made a US syndicated / Hulu deal. hulu.com/republic-of-doyle
Very sorry to see it go
I just ha] pen to be flipping channels and came upon this jewel of a TV show. I love all of the casthma members and am sad to see it go. GoI’d luck to all.
This is so sad! 🙁 I love Doyle so much!!
But in the other hand, they played smart ending it now. the way CBC is going down, they would end up having to cut it sooner or later. This way we get a proper ending… (But I’m SURE i’m gonna cry lots on the season finale)
This was a series I discovered at the public library and enjoyed so much. Was sorry to learn they did not continue after season 6.
I love this show. I found it on Netflix and got hooked. So sorry to hear it’s ending. I love the characters and the actors playing the parts. I do wish them well and will be watching for them in future programs. Absolutely loved the love story between Jake and Leslie.