The E1 cop drama Shattered is the sole new Canuck show in primetime on Global’s fall schedule, unveiled Tuesday at Toronto’s Hazelton Hotel, as several hundred ACTRA members rallied outside to protest the broadcaster’s shopping spree on American shows.
Global acquired four new U.S. dramas including the remake of Hawaii Five-O, the Texas-set drama Lonestar, anthology series Love Bites, and the Jimmy Smits courtroom drama Outlaw. New comedy Outsourced will follow The Office on Thursdays.
‘The ratio of American shows to Canadian shows is outrageous…if you look around at the talent just on this street today, it’s a whole fall lineup that’s not being used,’ Colin Mochrie told Playback Daily at the rally. Chanting ‘More Canadian on TV!,’ Mochrie was joined by actors including Wendy Crewson, Leah Pinsent, and Corner Gas’ Eric Peterson, all of whom decried the record $846 million doled out by private nets on American fare in 2009.
Canwest EVP of content Barbara Williams defended the network’s spend, insisting the broadcaster and its specialties have an ‘enormous slate of Can-con,’ and invested upwards of $150 million on Canadian shows for this year’s schedule. She also hinted that the broadcaster will announce a new Canadian drama in the coming months.
Global is coming off a strong year with the success of rookie series Glee, NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife – all of which will return to Tuesdays and air in that order.
Veteran medical drama House kicks off Monday nights followed by Fox’s Lonestar, about a con artist leading two separate lives, and Hawaii Five-O which stars Alex O’Loughlin (The Shield) and Scott Caan (Oceans 11).
A big switch-up will see season 21 of the broadcaster’s top-rated show Survivor move to the Wednesday 8 p.m. slot to keep the simulcast with CBS, as reliable crime series Bones is bumped to Thursdays where it will air in simulcast with Fox.
‘I’m delighted [with the Survivor switch] because we’ve always had to have Bones in a pre-release on Wednesdays…now we get them both in simulcast, it’s a win for us,’ observes Williams.
After Bones, Global is offering sitcoms The Office and Outsourced, about a manager who is sent to India to oversee his company’s staff of customer service representatives. Love Bites, featuring three loosely connected stories of love, sex and marriage, follows at 10 p.m.
Other returning shows include 90210, which moves to Fridays at 8 p.m., Brothers and Sisters, and the usual Sunday comedy block comprised of The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show.
Shattered, starring Callum Keith Rennie (Battlestar Galactica) as a former star cop who solves crimes through the use of his multiple-personality disorder, will air Fridays at 9 p.m., leading into Outlaw.
Among the new Canadian shows on Canwest’s specialty slate are Top Chef Canada, Wipeout Canada, copro The Kennedys and suspense drama Haven.