The CBC held its “Winter 2025” Media Day Thursday in Toronto. It was, as usual, well run and smartly organized, with plenty of access to the talent associated with shows either launching or returning starting early in January. Plus, yes, there was lunch.
The public broadcaster’s No. 1 hit comedy Son of a Critch, which returns with a fourth season January 7, was represented, as were stars and producers from the past who are back with new shows. They included Allan Hawco and his unique Canada-France police drama Saint Pierre. Season one’s 10 new episodes begin Monday, January 6, right after Murdoch Mysteries. Also in the building were former Baronesses Jennifer Whalen and Meredith MacNeill who headline the brash new “menopause”-themed comedy, Small Achievable Goals. That series launches Feb. 25.
Ahead for the network, however, is a large, hopefully achievable goal. It is more of a daunting task: survival.
The taxpayer-funded public broadcaster, for those in other lands, has become something of an election issue. The leader of the opposition, wildly ahead in the polls and making relentless calls for the disolution of Parliament, has been consistantly firm on promising to his base to not only axe the tax but also to axe the CBC. He has been very clear that the share of the annual appropriation that goes to support CBC’s english language television service — roughly half a billion dollars — will be yanked back once the Conservatives form the next government.
There is no “if” this will happen, only “when.” It is not just “F-Trudeau” and “Freedom Convoy” supporters who are down with both lower taxes and less CBC. Poll after poll show support is slipping among most Canadians.
The leadership at the public broadcaster has not done much to convince taxpayers that the network remains a responsible and an essential service. Catherine Tait, who is coming to the end of six years as President and CEO of the public broadcaster, has made matters worse by refusing to address the horrible optics of allowing way too many CBC corporate executives to cart home large bonuses. She took this undefendable stance despite cutting hundreds of jobs earlier in her tenure in what was described as cost cutting moves. She ignored many opportunities to turn this negative impression around.
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It has also been obvious to many observers that the CBC was all in on a “woke” (in many ways progressive, but try scrubbing woke off anything these days) agenda promoted by the Liberal government of the day. I’ve attended press rallies where First Nations singing and dancing took up more presentation time than promoting TV shows. That this was mounted to attone for decades of social and corporate neglect was welcome, but that it was also calculated to re-open the Ottawa funding tap was heap big obvious.
Problem is, pendulums do swing both ways. The next guys are set to weld that money tap shut. If those in charge at CBC think that won’t happen, they need only look out the window at CBC headquarters, one of the few 10-storey buildings left standing in a downtown Toronto neighbourhood where 100-story towers are rising. This property, like a drive-in theatre now surrounded by urban sprawl, has outlived its usefulness.
Some would argue it was behind the times the day it opened. Who builds a broadcast centre and puts all the studios on the top floor? Fact is, the old days of studio audiences in bleachers went with the Royal Canadian Air Farce, and while experiencing those performances was amazing, they were the last holdout.
Yesterday, on the 10th floor, I was provided with a perfect space to set up for podcasting. It even had a small bathroom with a shower. This will make someone a cosy little one-bedroom soon, I thought.
As podcast guests arrived, I welcomed them to the “Poilievre” suite. I felt I had to break the ice with the elephant in the room.
Fact is, I have great affection for the CBC’s broadcast headquarters in Toronto. I look down from the 10th floor into the enormous centre court below and think of all the publicists I have know over the years, always making my job easier. I’ve been welcomed there for interviews, tapings, press conferences and even book signings. The doors were opened for me to run films in perfect-sized projection rooms. I left yesterday with a bag full of CBC toques and gloves, donated as prizes for future TV on Film Party trivia screenings. I have generous, hard-working friends in that building, at just about every level.
I took a walk over to the Wayne & Shuster wall of fame on the 10th floor, past the black and white photos of the great 20th century comedy team of Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. I was a young TV Guide reporter in the early ’80s when I was invited to cover the ground breaking event on this property. There I met the clever comedy duo. I remember Wayne reminiscing (grumbling, really), ‘Sure build this now.’ They had to make their shows in over 30 dilapidated buildings spread throughout the city.
TV was so very different in the ’80s. No cable, specialty, Internet, YouTube, streaming, FAST channels or TikTok. CBC had the most-watched newscasts, primetime hits and Hockey Night in Canada.
Will a private network green light a Saint Pierre or Small Achievable Goals today? You can put the number of scripted primetime series on Bell, CORUS and Rogers in a thimble. Bell recently cut staff and boosted stock holder dividends. Show business, in Canada, has never been more about business.
Every TV player is a niche broadcaster today, and for a Canadian network to sustain any scripted fare, the programs will need to be subsidized. Otherwise, where will The CW be able to turn to fill its schedule?
Ratings statistics were released this week showing how audience shares for even the most successful of American franchises, Saturday Night Live, had shrunk under three million total same day viewers. Drill down to the advertiser-favoured demos and it is well under a million — in a nation of 330 million.
Canadians should not be shocked, therefore, to learn that few shows on Canadian schedules — and not just on CBC — crack 300,000 same day viewers. That is simply the take left over on a landscape that had exploded into the handheld devices of 40 million Canadian consumers.
CBC is not alone in facing a daunting future. CORUS, which operates Global and several specialty channels, is scrambling to survive under a worrisome debt load. Ten years from now, CBS and NBC may be small divisions of much larger media giants, seen in that same rear view mirror as the Dumont network.
Should a public broadcaster be part of a future landscape when it comes to video storytelling? Hell yes, unless you look forward to Canada as a 51st state getting a desk and some drawers in a room at PBS headquarters in Washington.
The thing is, you don’t just need any old CBC. You need a place that is run by people of vision who know how to pivot and understand that they are competing in a borderless business. You need a CRTC that gets that as well.
One last thought: CBC has the best TV archive in North America. Their climate controlled vaults house tens of thousands of hours of Canada’s televised past. I’ve seen how little thought is given to history when newspapers are shuttered or acquired into takeover oblivion. God knows where the carefully archived photo library of The Toronto Sun — which included the vast collection of 20th century photos that once belonged to the Toronto Telegram — have wound up today.
Mr. Polievire: please protect that history. That archive is a legacy no political act should ever erase. It is a key not just to our past but to our future, as well as our future storytellers.
