In space, no one can hear you scream, “Change the channel!” Earthlings should listen for that sound shortly after 9 p.m. Monday as Ascension lifts off on CBC. The six-part space opera has already aired Stateside on the SyFy cable network. Episodes were shot last summer in Montreal with Lionsgate and Canadian partners Sea to
OTTAWA–Folks worried the recent shootings in Ottawa might lead to a severe crackdown on access to the Parliament buildings should rest easy,or so says Mark Critch. The This Hour Has 22 Minutes satirist scrambled all over the Peace Tower and Centre Block this week shooting sketches for next Tuesday’s show. The entire cast and many
PASADENA, Calif.–The preliminary overnight numbers are in, and the new Eugene Levy/Catherine O’Hara comedy Schitt’s Creek opened strong, premiering to 1,359,000 estimated viewers. More encouraging for CBC, a second episode at 9:30 drew 1,366,000. Even Guy Caballero would be impressed. That was opposite some stiff import competition in Canada Tuesday night: Global led the 9 p.m. hour
Remember how September came and went and there were hardly any new Canadian TV shows in the mix? Global decided long ago not to throw a raw Canadian series into the wood chipper that is the fall TV season. Other broadcasters now also hold their Canadian brownie points until the beginning of a new calendar year.
Tonight’s annual Air Farce New Year’s Eve special is all about anniversaries. It was 40 years ago this week that the Royal Canadian Air Farce performed their first New Year’s Eve gig–on CBC radio. This year’s show marks 10 years of “Farce Films.” The short, one-camera on-location bits now make up 30% of the hour-long
Wednesday night, CBC airs the final regular season episodes of Republic of Doyle. The two-hour Doyle-fest begins at 8 p.m. This was a series that was easy to embrace for me right from the beginning. For one thing, it wasn’t another formulaic, procedural, Canadian cop show mimicking a formulaic, procedural, American cop show. It screamed St.
Thursday in Toronto, a comedy Who’s Who packed into the Bell Lightbox to celebrate 22 years of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Half of Newfoundland seemed to make it down to the Bell Lightbox for the salute. The Pope (Gordon Pinsent) and the ex-premier (Danny Williams) were both in the house, as was every 22
Wednesday, Republic of Doyle airs in its regular CBC timeslot (9 p.m.). Then, next week, Dec. 10, comes the two-hour finale to the brawlin’, tire-squealin’ six year old detective series. I was out in St. John’s last summer when they were putting the finishing touches to the series. So, naturally, I tried to steal Jake