There can be little argument that this year has not been a good one for CBC. And a second not-good year in a row, at that. The network – still bruised from the absence of NHL games in 2004/05 and the lockout of its own staff in 2005 – has struggled with soft ratings and some spectacular embarrassments both on the screen (the quick death of The One) and off (the potty mouth of now ex-chairman Guy Fournier) as it works to rebuild its reputation and third-place ratings.

These things don’t get fixed in a day nor, usually, a single season, though the fall schedule was touted as the first step of the Ceeb’s eventual turnaround, putting new reality and comedy titles alongside dramas including October 1970 and Jozi-H.

The ratings for those last two, among others, have handed a lot of free ammunition to CBC’s critics, though programming boss Kirstine Layfield insists there is some good news on her schedule, citing the staying power of the network’s older comedies, the promotional oomph of The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos and audience share numbers during a recent sit-down with Playback.

Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes, for instance, are holding their own on Tuesdays starting at 8 p.m., beating the competition through October and into November.

‘Rick Mercer and 22 Minutes had never been put together in an hour before,’ says Layfield. We’re sitting at the small meeting table in her office, and she produces a ratings chart that puts both shows in the high six figures, though the winning streak ended on Nov. 21 against the American Music Awards on CTV. ‘We’ve been winning that timeslot every week since it debuted against the American shows.’

For much of that time CTV was airing Dancing with the Stars, since switched to Degrassi: The Next Generation. Global has been running Friday Night Lights.

According to that same mid-November chart, however, they are also the only two Ceeb shows that hit their targets that week, though the fifth estate and The National came close. The investigative news magazine, at the time riding high on its exposé of Ontario lotteries, was aiming for 650,000 viewers and hit 614,000. The nightly National scored between the 500s and 700s, looking for 750,000

The scripted series all shot for 750,000 or 800,000 and fell short. Rumours: 94,000. Intelligence: 247,000. October 1970: 72,000. Jozi-H: 217,000.

The newsy The Hour comes in at about halfway to its 250,000 target. The realities Dragon’s Den and Underdogs placed in the 380s and 220s, respectively.

It should also be noted that CBC has been goosing its Mercer and 22 numbers by combining Tuesday’s with the reruns on Friday, which frees up some bragging rights by putting both shows over one million viewers. Normally, advertisers wouldn’t make deals based on combined numbers, but CBC has made the unusual move of selling both nights as a block. Buy a spot on the Tuesday Mercer, you get one on Friday, too.

‘We do it whenever we can with the bigger ones,’ says Layfield, including Dragon’s Den. ‘If you have a rerun on at 2 o’clock in the morning those don’t count, but the primetime does.’

CBC’s audience share also warrants a closer look. The first eight weeks of the fall season – starting Sept. 1 – the net was at 6.1% in prime, down from 6.5% in ’05. Not great, but not a fair comparison with the other networks, according to Layfield, because the Ceeb doesn’t start its season until October. It lays low while CTV and Global debut all their U.S. shows.

CBC’s October-November share was 7.3%, down from 8.3% in ’05 and on par with the 7.6% for ’04. ‘Up to the end of October we’re consistent with last year’s numbers. We’re behind a bit,’ says Layfield.

It’s odd that the Ceeb’s audience share jumped right after its 2005 lockout, but Layfield is loathe to discuss it.

‘I wasn’t here during the lockout. I wouldn’t know,’ she says. ‘The lockout had ended a full year before I started, almost.’ Layfield would only concede that the NHL lockout had hurt ratings, balking at any discussion of numbers following the CBC labor dispute.

(The lockout ended Oct. 11. Layfield was named in January and started in March.)

A PR rep for the network later conceded that both events had had an ‘effect’ on the ratings, adding by way of explanation that ‘the whole period is something we’d really prefer to put behind us.’

Layfield went on to talk up the network’s promotional efforts, which are sometimes called into question.

‘Promotion has changed, and it’s not all about buying billboards or ads in The Globe and Mail,’ she says. ‘A lot of the concerns we hear are from people who used to get those ads in the Globe, but we know that’s not the best way to spend what little money we have. We’re trying to be more clever.’

Exhibit A: more cross-promotion, such as recent segments on The Hour that hyped Intelligence, Dragon’s Den and Mercer, though she adds there are no plans to make either show as hype-heavy as ET Canada (Global) or eTalk Daily (CTV). ‘People want content and I think our promotional push looks better surrounded by content,’ she says.

Priority shows such as Intelligence and Dragon’s Den have benefited from promotional pushes, she says, but concedes that others were allowed to wither on the vine, such as the mini René Lévesque and the MOW Bookie Makes Her Mark, both of which aired in September.

‘It’s not economical in a world where we don’t have lots of dollars to spend… on shows that are going to come and go,’ she says.

Producers also complain about where they land on the schedule. ‘People say all the time, ‘Oh god, I’ve got the worst timeslot on the schedule.’ Every timeslot is the worst slot because you’re always up against the American juggernauts no matter what we do.

‘We aren’t in the same world as American shows,’ she says. ‘What we’re saying to the Canadian public is we know you like to watch Canadian shows but we also know you’re voting with your remote controls.’

CBC also aired the lion’s share of 10-part documentary Hockey: A People’s History in September, most of it before the start of the NHL season and, thus, without the considerable promo power of Hockey Night in Canada. It averaged 396,000 viewers but, says Layfield, made the best of a difficult schedule.

‘We’re not the only ones who run hockey,’ she notes. ‘If we’d put [People’s History] on during hockey season,’ as originally planned, on Wednesdays, ‘it would be up against TSN actually showing an actual hockey game. What would you choose?’

(Me? The documentary. In a heartbeat. But never mind…)

Layfield says the series was not meant to be a broad-appeal show, and its ratings in the 300s were on par with expectations. She adds that flexibility of the CBC schedule will be a significant bargaining chip during the net’s contract talks with the NHL. Broadcast rights beyond the 2007/08 season are up for grabs, and CTV/TSN is expected to make a major push of its own.

Layfield remains confident about CBC and her schedule, noting that a number of new titles, including the controversial-sounding comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie in January, will follow significant pushes during the Ceeb-friendly holiday season.

‘I always say, the general public doesn’t care if I’ve only been on the job for six months. They just want to watch good television.’