In October of 2006, I headed out to the Music Hall in Toronto to see Tonight Show legend Ed McMahon. I had interviewed the veteran sidekick on the phone a few days earlier for the Toronto Sun (read that story here). He sounded excited to be coming to a place called the “Music Hall,” and
Homer Simpson and Al Bundy topped our last-minute Father’s Day poll of TV’s Top Dads. But the guy who came next was once considered the daddest of them all.Hugh Beaumont played ’50s middle class protodad Ward Cleaver for six seasons on Leave It To Beaver (1957-63). He was the man of the house, a total
The same thing is happening with The Listener that happened with Flashpoint. Strong Canadian numbers, not-so-strong on the U.S. side.CTV drew 1,079,000 viewers to last Thursdays show, which is well placed between top-rated So You Think You Can Dance (1,552,000) and the resurgent CTV National News (1,155,000. All numbers BBM Canada overnight “commercial” estimates).The strong
Catching up with a couple of recent radio reports. This Thursday’s TV Talk with CHML’s Scott Thompson was all about Stanley Cup final hockey ratings on both sides of the border. The other hot topic is the late night wars including that whole David Letterman/Sarah Palin thing. Letterman crossed the line, in my opinion, not
Talking TV with CBC Radio host Rita Celli today after 1 p.m. on Ontario Today. The subject is how you watch television–do you PVR it, stream it off your computer, catch it on your iPod–anything but actually watching it off a network schedule on a TV screen, right? Well, maybe. I still say the PVR
Just a reminder–tickets are still available for next Tuesday’s BRC Fall Preview gala at the Four Seasons in Toronto. “Programming Insider” Marc Berman from Mediaweek and yours truly will spin through the fall forecast, broken business models be damned. Thanks to the generosity and cooperation from the folks at CTV, Global and City, clips from
Brutal week of technical snafus and too many print deadlines resulting in few postings. Hopefully the worst is over. Thanks for your patience and stay tuned.
Way behind in my radio links. Here are the two most recent posts with CHML Talk Radio host Scott Thompson.The first, from June 10, covered the Rogers-City-TV upfront last week in Toronto. Their best buy in terms of imported American fare appears to be Modern Family. There are also some memories of David Carradine as