– WIC to air Emily in its third season

Emily of New Moon is finally a ‘go’ on wic, although it’s currently caught up in a ctcpf funding decision that affects both wic and cbc, the first window broadcaster.

For the record, wic was slated to air Emily last January after giving cbc the first window for the first four months.

But it has yet to air on wic at all and will not this season. The reason is that the ctcpf board decided earlier this year that although wic pays the licence fee for Emily, the cbc, the originating broadcaster, may have to cough up part of its envelope.

‘The board took a position that essentially became punitive to deals such as [the one] we have with the cbc,’ explains Jim Macdonald, wic Television’s president, ‘It may very well mean that the third season – the original episodes – will run on wic to maintain the fund qualifications, so we’re trying to sort through all of those factors.

‘All the financial commitments on this show have been made by wic, and under normal circumstances [for] the triggering broadcaster, any monies that come from the fund come out of the conventional side.’

Macdonald says that wic decided to enter into an agreement with the cbc for the first window because ‘the cbc would provide national coverage to 100% of the country as opposed to just under 70% for wic.’ He adds that cbc has some good lead-in programs, ‘which we really felt would help Emily, and quite frankly, wic did not have the same kind of strength in genre programming.

‘It is doing exactly what we hoped it would do. It’s doing over one million viewers on cbc. ‘The ctcpf board however determined that if the first window should be taken by the cbc, that the fund dollars would come out of the cbc envelope. It’s not clear if that would be acceptable to cbc in the first instance and as a result it may very well be that season three will premiere on wic and not on the cbc. So it’s quite complicated.’

Macdonald says that wic ‘has been and always will be the triggering broadcaster and the one responsible for the license fee’ for Emily.

‘I want to make sure that we get the best shot possible from our Emily episodes,’ he continues, ‘and I do not want to create a lot of confusion with the cbc runs. So we’re really trying to maximize it…They’ve got season two and there are issues, which I explained, emanating on season three. We really need to sort that out and then the wic schedule will become very clear.’

– Power to the viewers

The proof is in the ratings for June 22-28: viewers hate reruns, but they like them on Global and cfto. The two nets made a killing on that ratings week with Global having 12 shows and cfto having ten in Nielsen Media Research’s list of 22 shows.

Three of the top five shows in Toronto/Hamilton, according to Nielsen Media Research, are ‘episodic programs, either news or drama, and these programs are not in reruns.’ All eight of the top shows aired on Global that week.

What are these viewers enjoying? The X-Files came in first with a 5.8 dma rating. The show is in repeats, but that particular episode coincided with the X-Files movie premiere that weekend, so any repeat would do for X-philes. The Young and the Restless ranked second with a 5.6 dma rating and 60 Minutes had a 5.3. The Simpsons, in repeats, clocked in at 5.1, and Baba Wawa and gang made a 4.9 rating with 20/20.

Sliders, which is running new episodes, continued to slide up the ratings scale and hit the number six spot that week.

Also that week, cfto’s top three shows, which start at the number nine spot, were Ally McBeal (4.4), the New America’s Most Wanted (4.3) and Jeopardy (4.1)

Vancouverites shared the same regard for reruns as Torontonians during June 22-28 ratings. Six of the top ten shows were also ‘episodic.’ The ten are 20/20 (4.6 on civt on Monday), Jeopardy (4.6), The Simpsons (4.5), Wheel of Fortune (4.5), Global News (4.1), Seinfeld (4.1), Ally McBeal (3.9), 20/20 (3.8 on ckvu on Friday), Primetime Live (3.7), ER (3.5).

The June 29-July 6 ratings were much of the same only re-ordered. Y&R hit number one (5.7), 60 Minutes (5.5) and Ally McBeal (5.1). The first two shows aired on Global; Ally was on cfto.

Two Fox shows on cfto appeared for the first time on the charts and tied in the 10th spot with a 3.9. Damon and Getting Personal air back-to-back on Mondays starting at 8 p.m.

In Vancouver, ckvu had the top two shows, with 60 Minutes (4.8) and 20/20 (on ckvu, 4.6). Y&R tied in the 20th spot with 20/20 (civt), Dawson’s Creek (ckvu), Law & Order (civt), South Park (ckvu), Touched by an Angel (chek). All six shows rated 2.8.

– CTV yucks it up

In its second season, Comedy Now! (SFA Productions) launched this month on ctv with 17 episodes of Canadian comedy. The yucks started with Elvira Kurt’s comedy Big Girl Now on Sunday, July 12 at 8 p.m., followed by Sean Cullen’s (Corky & the Juice Pigs) Wood, Cheese & Children! on July 19 and Shaun Majumder’s On the Edge! which aired July 26.

The next scheduled shows to appear are Roman Danylo’s Roman Times at 8 p.m. and Chris Finn’s Urban Miffs at 8:30 p.m. on August 2.

– The summer CBC carousel

Now that Hana Gartner has kicked up her feet for the summer and Brian Stewart is recovering from knee surgery, the CBC National Magazine is in the midst of summer host replacements.

Linden Macintyre and Rex Murphy have had their shot. The ubiquitous Evan Solomon, sans blond streaks, and Leslie Mackinnon, had a crack at it recently. Also on the lineup Anne Petrie (July 27), Francine Pelletier (Aug. 3), David Halton (Aug. 10), Alan Gregg (Aug. 17) and Laurie Brown (Aug. 14).