There was a pretty significant TV anniversary over the weekend–50 years since the Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debates. They were billed as “The Great Debates” when the first of four aired over three U.S. networks on Sept. 26, 1960. They were the first televised presidential debates and the opener is generally considered to have boosted then senator John F. Kennedy’s
Daddy-daughter Racers Gary & Mallory The Amazing Race continues to be an amazing story for CTV, racing back as Canada’s No. 1 Sunday show with close to 2.5 million viewers according to overnight estimates. That topped a big night at the private broadcaster, which squeezed in six shows between 6 p.m. and midnight—and saw all six
Never underestimate Tom Selleck. The 65-year-old (above, centre) showed he can still pull an audience—even on a Friday—with the strong debut of his new CBS series Blue Bloods. The New York-based cop drama drew an overnight, estimated 2,126,000 CTV viewers Friday night, making it the second most-watched 2010-11 series premiere over all, just 10,000 viewers
Tonight’s season two premiere of CBC’s Battle of the Blades is a bit of a free skate. There’s no actual competition, with tonight’s show more of an hour long introduction of the eight ex-NHLers and eight female figure skating champions taking part in this season’s competition. I had a sneak peak of the hour Friday
Everyone needs a good Polkaroo every now and then. Which brings us to Sunday’s “Word on the Street” festival in Toronto, where TVOntario children’s icon Polkaroo (right with unidentified TV critic) will be on the prowl. The colourful Polka Dot Door mascot is helping to kick off the Ontario educational broadcaster’s 40th anniversary and bring
The Big Bang Theory roared back Thursday night on CTV, drawing an overnight, estimated 3.1 million-plus viewers across Canada. All those billboards and bus shelter ads paid off. CTV says that’s the biggest Canadian TV audience for a sitcom since the finale of Friends. CTV had a monster night thanks to Thursday imports that do better in Canada
Fridays used to be where shows went to die. Not this year, with both ABC and Fox launching new shows with big names into a night CBS never gave up on. Tom Selleck, Jimmy Smits and Dana Delany all headline Friday night launches this fall. Read more about the Friday revival at this story I
First Ivan Fecan, now Jeff Zucker. Bill Carter at the New York Times has the scoop on the departure of Zucker, the former Today Show producer wunderkind who went on to become the top NBC Universal executive. While not a complete surprise–Comcast is in the process of acquiring the broadcast and cable giant and that usually means