All things must pass, and so we are into the new reality on Saturday night’s in Canada. After 74 years, a tradition dating back to 1952, there are no more “free” Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts. Rogers no longer shares their primetime weekend showcase with the public broadcaster. Viewers instead can subscribe to Sportsnet to
Murdoch Mysteries returns tonight for a 20th season — not bad for a series cancelled 15 seasons ago. Citytv felt there were no mysteries left to solve when they announced that they were ditching the series after five seasons in 2011. CBC swooped in immediately and cut a deal with production company Shaftesbury to extend
Back in 1996 I wrote a TV Guide Canada cover story on a local actress then making a name for herself on North America’s No. 1 series – ER. Her name is Gloria Reuben, born in Toronto and raised in London, Ontario. When I reached her by phone in Los Angeles, she had to interrupt
It was 65 years ago on today’s date back in 1961 – October 3 – that The Dick Van Dyke Show premiered on CBS. The half hour sitcom, which also aired on CBC in Canada, was not an instant hit. Itstruggled in the ratings between Marshal Dillon (a half-hour version of Gunsmoke) and Bachelor Father
Proof that Saturday Night Live is still appointment television in Canada came this past weekend. In much of the country, the 52nd season premiere of the series — and first ever on Bell/CTV — was bumped 16 minutes by a college football game overrun in the US. Hard to say if that will tackle CTV’s
As a TV beat reporter with an eye on the ratings, I never could understand why the Global television network walked away from their top-rated Canadian original hit Private Eyes in 2021. This breezy, stylish detective series, reminiscent of past romantic hits such as Hart to Hart, was vaulting well over the million mark in
Shocking revelation time: I was once a contestant on Big Brother Canada. Granted, it was a PR stunt where members of the press were gathered in the Big Brother house, so not for days and days although it seemed like it for the seven-and-a-half hours it took to kick me out. One of the other
Back in the ‘70s there was this hippie musical Godspell that ran for over a year in Toronto. The cast was mainly unknown at the time but wouldn’t stay that way for long. Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, Jayne Eastwood, Rudy Webb, and future Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer