First, here is what I liked best about the 2026-27 Bell Media Upfront that took place Thursday in Toronto at Meridian Place: that it still happens. These big, showy, ad agency programming-paloozas are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Some networks, including what’s left of CBS, have gotten out of the rent-a-hall business and
You have to feel for the folks at Corus Entertainment and Global Television. Ratings-wise, even as broadcast numbers continue to tumble, they had a pretty good year last year. At Bell, they boast that this is the 25th consecutive year where CTV has emerged as No. 1 overall in prime time network ratings, but they
It takes more than 22 Minutes to amass 700 episodes of a Canadian TV series — or any North American series for that matter. Saturday Night Live, after 50 years, is inching towards 1000 episodes. (It’s at 991.) The Ed Sullivan Show, from 1948 – ’71, was a really big variety shew for 1,068 Sundays.
Sometimes my name trips people up on the phone. In 2008, for example, Hulk Hogan wrestled with it. “Bill Brioux–sounds like a wrestling name,” said the WWE’s ultimate showman. Hogan was on the line to promote the finale of American Gladiators, then in its first incarnation on NBC and City-TV. The Hulkster was shocked to
This has been going on for months now, half a year at least. Every time Donald Trump burps out another middle-of-the-night tweet or lurches into another Oval offside about Canada becoming the “51st State,” the fiercest pushback comes during the opening monologues of at least half a dozen US late night talk shows. The folks
You might want to have a drink handy for a toast: George Wendt died May 20, on the 32nd anninversary of the Cheers‘ series finale. His death at 76, peacefully in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, will no doubt inspire editorial cartoons of his Cheers character Norm Petersen arriving at the pearly
I have a rough rule of thumb when choosing a book to read: anything over 400 pages is just, as the kids say, TMI. More than that tells me that the author simply couldn’t decide what to take out, so they left everything in, say, the subject’s great-great grandfather came to America in 1852 and
I have to thank the folks at LateNighter for a cool assignment — explaining and providing a Canadian point of view on the impact of Mike Myers’ “elbow’s up” rallying cry on Saturday Night Live. You can read the full story here. As the credits started to roll, Myers flashed the double-secret “elbows-to-action” signal at