As Peter Mansbridge says on the current episode of brioux.tv the podcast, its been a great fall for Canadian authors. His book, “Off the Record,” has been near the top of the Canadian nonfiction bestsellers list since it was released by Simon & Schuster in September. Other books by Mark Messier, Jean Chretien, Judy Wilson-Raybould,
Canada’s longest-running scripted entertainment series is not The Beachcombers or Wayne & Shuster or even Murdoch Mysteries. It is This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Premiering in 1993, the Halifax-based sketch comedy made stars out of brash Newfoundlanders Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones, Greg Thomey and Rick Mercer. Turnovers in the cast and writing talent – a
NOTE: This story has been corrected below to clarify that the decline in Canadian ratings is true for all broadcast networks, not just CBC. How tough has it been for new broadcast network shows to crack through the clutter this fall? Tougher, so far this season, than trying to root for The Toronto Maple Leafs.
As my late ex-mother-in-law Teresa Darrah usd to say, Mark Critch is as ‘busy as a dog licking two pots.” He’s back tonight on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, snapping into wigs and costumes and behind the desk and in his 18th season on the Halifax-based sketch series. That places him second in time served
Shaun Majumder says he has never been a huge fan of reality shows. “You know – fake scripted — these dramatic shows that aren’t really dramatic.” When he was offered the job hosting CBC’s sand sculpture reality competition Race Against the Tide, however, it sounded like something he could really dig. The 10-episode series premieres
Shaun Majumder, wife Shelby and their infant daughter Mattis Maple were in Mexico when COVID srarted to shut everything down early in 2020. They scrambled out in the nick of time before they would have had to isolate in place. That marked the beginning of a very upside down 18 months. As it did for
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
Let’s be fair. CBC has had, as the Queen once famously said, an annus horribilis. More than any other broadcaster, the pandemic ripped through their winter/spring schedule. Three months of huge Saturday ratings for a Stanley Cup playoff run packed with Canadian teams were completely wiped out. CBC lost countless hours of programming along with