On a recent Sunday night in Quebec, over three million viewers were watching homegrown television on a conventional network.

That remarkable audience share – for a province of just over seven million – is the envy of English-Canadian broadcasters. But it’s a disappointing stat for drama-makers in the province as most of those Sunday viewers were watching French-language knockoffs of foreign reality and game show formats.

For the last five years, the trend in the top ratings grabbers in la belle province has been towards reality-type programming such as Tout le monde en parle (a concept that originated in France),

Le Banquier (the Quebec version of Deal or No Deal) and Occupation double, a dating reality show.

Drama-makers in Quebec now use terms such as ‘audience building’ when they launch a new series, much like their counterparts in English Canada, although it is a strategy that just wasn’t necessary a decade ago.

‘The audience is fragmented,’ says Louise Lantagne, head of TV at Radio-Canada. ‘There are specialized chains and the web. We have to live with that, but fiction is really important. The key words right now are diversity and stability.’

In practice, says Lantagne, this means experimenting with innovative writers and concepts to attract niche audiences – such as Les Invincibles (2005-2009), a series aimed at twentysomething men – and programming popular standbys such as the low-budget soaps L’auberge du chien noir and Virginie, which draw between 800,000 and one million viewers weekly. ‘We want to have a stable grid to attract people back and add new stuff to it,’ she says.

Lantagne’s new director of TV drama and feature films, André Béraud, likens the viewer-broadcaster connection to a long-term romance. ‘It’s like a marriage between us and the public. Each year, we have to manage the schedule so as to respond to the audience’s needs.’

While SRC’s flagship fall drama Aveux (Confession), a 12 x 60 psychological thriller by playwright Serge Boucher (Pixcom) hasn’t yet made it into the top 10 most-watched programs, it is drawing an average of roughly 850,000 weekly in primetime. ‘We are very pleased with the results,’ says Béraud.

SRC has three other new series, which will begin airing this winter: Trauma, a 10 x 60 hospital drama (Aetios Productions); Musée Eden (Eden Museum), a historical mystery series set in Montreal and a show about a PR firm, Mirador (Sphère Média Plus and Encore Television).

While SRC tends to launch most of Quebec’s experimental TV drama, TVA relies on a slate of popular low-budget soaps and glitzy game and reality shows to maintain its 30% market share. Most of the top 30 shows in the province are on TVA, and only a few of are fictional.

TVA’s most profitable properties are Le Banquier, which draws two million viewers weekly, and Occupation Double, which pulls in over 1.5 million per week.

TVA surprised observers this year by launching five new dramas in the 2009/10 season, including two this fall: the telenovela Yamaska and the police drama Le gentleman. Both are penned by Duo Productions’ Anne Boyer and Michel d’Astous. According to BBM Canada stats for Oct. 12-18, Yamaska drew 1.2 million viewers, while Le gentleman was just shy of one million. Why is TVA changing tactics?

The net mixed up its schedule a bit this year to offset the presence of the newly branded, youth-oriented V network (formerly TQS), says TVA spokeswoman Nicole Tardif. ‘We are trying to compete by offering more family-oriented TV [with] programs that are attractive to people of all ages,’ she explains.

TVA is also pinning its hopes on what many predict will be the TV event of 2010, the ‘hockey’ reality show La Série Montréal-Québec, which is produced and hosted by Quebec TV diva Julie Snyder.

‘We’re recruiting a team of 28 – men, women of all ages – to form two garage league hockey teams from Montreal and Quebec to revive the Nordique-Canadiens rivalry,’ explains Snyder’s spokesman Louis Noel. ‘Ten thousand people have signed up to audition to be on the teams. We are making the initial selections now and will have a training camp in December. It’s going to be extraordinary.’