Poor ratings aren’t always what kills a TV series. Case in point: Motive, returning for a fourth and final season Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on CTV. The Vancouver-based Howdunit pulls a steady 1.2 million viewers a week no matter when it is plunked down on CTV’s schedule. Given that it is 100% Canadian content,
This whole “skinny basic” cable kerfuffle is radio gold to my pal Scott Thompson at AM900 CHML. He could hardly wait to dive into it on this week’s radio chat. Scott asks if the cable/satellite providers aren’t missing an opportunity by keeping this offer–a skinny basic tier of programming for 25 bucks–as far under the radar
A dull, mistake-filled game plus good weather across much of Canada put a dent in Sunday’s Super Bowl numbers. According to overnight estimates, an average-minute audience of 7,324,000 Canadians watched Super Bowl 50 on CTV Sunday night, down roughly 900,000 from the year before. The 2015 game was a nail-biter and a record-setter, with 8.23
Scott Thompson at CHML’s AM900 started things off Wednesday with a timely news angle: Donald Trump ditching Fox News’ coverage of the Republican presidential candidates debate. The Donald does not like Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and won’t participate if she’s on the debate coverage. Evidently, he’s not the only one not in Kelly’s corner. Scott
I spoke twice with CHML’s Scott Thompson this week. I did another CHML AM900 radio chat with Scott Bradley on Tuesday. This is more often than I generally speak with family members. Thompson started his first call chatting about Justin Trudeau and selfies and what did I think about that. I mention how, on the
The Disney Channel has been around for 32 years in the U.S., where it is available to 96.2 million households. On Tuesday, it finally launches in Canada. As Goofy would say, “Gawrsh!” What took so long? A great deal of Disney Channel programming has been available to Canadians since Family Channel launched in 1988. But
OTTAWA–The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission ruled Tuesday that the popular series Murdoch Mysteries must cease airing on CBC and return “where it belongs” to City TV stations across Canada. The Shaftesbury production was canceled three years ago on Rogers-owned City but then CBC swooped in and rescued the series. Ever since transitioning to CBC, Murdoch
A little over a year ago, I was invited to Ottawa to moderate a panel of Canadian TV executives. The event was Prime Time in Ottawa, which just hosted industry leaders for the 20th time earlier this month. At the session I moderated, the professionals in the room were still buzzing over a fuse colleague John Doyle