This season marks 25 years since the launch of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Conceived by Mary Walsh as the follow up to her earlier CBC comedy series CODCO, the weekly news satire has lampooned politicians and Canada in general since Jean Chretien was strangling citizens on Parliament Hill. Halifax-based author Angela Mombourquette – who worked
I first met Rick Mercer 24 years ago. I had a very cool assignment from TV Guide; go to Halifax, spend a week with the cast and crew of This Hour Has 22 Minutes and find out how they go from newspaper headlines to a sketch comedy series in five days. Mercer was a young lad at the
CBC was smart to pull Kim’s Convenience out of Tuesday’s suicide slot. The Toronto Blue Jays exciting Wild Card win was a grand slam home run for Sportsnet, drawing an overnight, estimated 4,017,000 viewers. That makes it the fifth biggest audience in Sportsnet’s history, behind only Jays’ playoff games last fall vs. Kansas City and Texas. Games
What a difference a week makes. Without the Jays in the World Series, Sportsnet’s baseball playoff coverage has fallen well behind the record draws from earlier this month. Tuesday’s Game 1 of the World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets drew an overnight, estimated 776,000 Sportsnet viewers. Game 2 Wednesday
UPDATED: The numbers posted by the victorious Toronto Blue Jays during the ALDS are incredible: an overnight, estimated 4.85 million viewers watched that unforgettable fifth and deciding game on Sportsnet Wednesday night, peaking at a staggering 8.1 million by the final out. That tally followed 4,377,000 viewers for Game 4 vs Texas on Thanksgiving Monday afternoon and
Politicians were called on the (red) carpet last week in Ottawa as This Hour Has 22 Minutes performed for the first time outside of Halifax. I worked the carpet and caught opposition leader Thomas Mulcair and MP Scott Brison among the Parliamentarians who braved the performance. The show was taped before a packed crowd of
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
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