Ron MacLean surprised me at the start of the latest edition of brioux.tv: the podcast. The Hockey Night in Canada anchor and host of Battle of the Blades (airing Thursdays on CBC) was asked, as is every guest, just why the heck he was talking to me on the podcast. I ask this each episode
You’d think the election was in Canada. On Thursday, an overnight, estimated 1,978,000 Canadians watched the final US presidential debate live on CNN. That will top 2 million and be the No. 1 show in English Canada for the week by the time the Live+7 overnights are tallied. Canadians not watching the one hour and
Tonight, Thursday, Oct. 22, marks the sixth season premiere of CBC’s Battle of the Blades. “I’m just sick that it’s also the night of the presidential debate,” says Ron MacLean, back as host of Battle of the Blades (a job he’ll share this time with singer-actress Keshia Chante). “I don’t know how you don’t watch
How, you ask, are the new CBC shows doing so far this season? Funny you should ask. Given how the private broadcasters have been hampered so far this fall as several big-budget US imports have been held back due to COVID-19 production slowdowns, CBC seemed to be looking at a less competitive landscape. The constant
There’s nothing like a pandemic to have all of us taking stock. “It’s been an interesting time in terms of soul searching and exploring your own makeup,” agrees Murdoch Mysteries star Yannick Bisson. The 51-year-old actor, like the rest of us, has had some extra time to consider his place in the universe in 2020. Fans on
On Tuesday, Numeris released their latest list of weekly Top 30 programs in English Canada. This is the first to reflect the first, full week of what has traditionally been known as the start of the fall TV season. While it shows that 11 programs passed the million viewer mark during the week of September
This was a hard year for hockey. The NHL got smacked into the boards in March and was shut down right before another Stanley Cup run. When a plan emerged to mount a 60-day playoff tourney in “The Bubble,” it was always seen for what it was — a way to salvage what remained of
Brandon Tartikoff — last century’s John Landgraf — once said that TV ratings had become the box score of the ’90s. I’ve made a career buying in to that. There was a time when I tweeted out overnight TV ratings estimates every single day. I also wrote weekly ratings columns for a couple of years