Jeff Seymour is the first to admit that he has plenty in common with his obnoxious alter ego on Jeff Ltd., the comedy he co-created, executive produces, cowrites, stars in and now directs. But they are different in some ways — Seymour says he’s the kind of guy who likes to stay in on a Saturday night and watch the tube, for instance, something his alter ego most definitely wouldn’t do. The question is: do Canadian viewers feel the same way, and will they embrace homegrown sitcoms at that time?

Seymour’s current-day hominess, as well as his fond remembrance of Saturday night as prime TV-time when he was a kid, were what he settled on after he learned that CTV would be airing the second season of Jeff Ltd. on Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. after Robson Arms, the second season of which likewise launched Feb. 10, in the middle of CTV’s ‘Crime Time Saturday Night’ lineup, sandwiched between CSI and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

‘When I heard Saturday night, I didn’t know what to make of it at first,’ says Seymour, reached by phone in Florida. ‘But I did research and found out that you can get great numbers from Saturday night.’

Sure. If you’re hockey.

Okay, maybe it’s a teeny bit of a step down from last year’s time slot, when Jeff Ltd. ran on Wednesday nights. After American Idol. (Except the last four eps, which began the migration to Saturday nights.) But Seymour believes the folks upstairs at CTV know what they’re doing.

‘What I’m most happy about is that CTV is excited about it. CTV has a plan, and I’ve got all my faith in them,’ he says. ‘I know they value this product, so it would only behoove them to make the right choice. That’s what they’re in the business of doing. I’m in the business of making the show, and they’re in the business of getting ratings for the show.’

Apparently there’s another trait of Seymour’s that his on-screen persona does not share — diplomacy.

Asking a broadcast executive about programming Saturday nights is something of a ‘Have you stopped beating your wife?’ query, but the folks at CTV stand firm that Saturday is not the wasteland it was once thought to be.

‘Friday is another night that gets slammed, but I don’t think it does as much any more, [nor does] Saturday,’ says Susanne Boyce, CTV’s president of programming.

Compare that spot with that of, say, The Jane Show, another half-hour Canadian comedy, the second season of which just kicked off on Global Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 10 p.m., after Deal or No Deal. Jane sure looks like she’s getting a better day, and a way more logical lead-in than the crime fare that Robson and Jeff have, especially given that both Deal and Jane skew to women.

But Boyce points out that Saturday night has some inherent advantages that tend to get overlooked. Nobody’s fighting for a Saturday audience, for example, so it’s the least pre-empted night of the week, giving programming a better chance of building a loyal following. ‘You get a good run on a show,’ she says.

And in this case, the timeslot competition is far less fierce than what The Jane Show has to contend with — Gary Sinise and the dreaded CSI: NY powerhouse on CTV — one of the top shows of the week, never mind the night, with an average audience of 2.4 million.

So what Deal or No Deal giveth, CSI taketh away, and then some. But it was ever thus, argues Christine Shipton, Global’s VP of original programming. ‘Every timeslot is tough competition,’ she says. ‘You can’t look at a grid nowadays and not say ‘shoot, it’s up against this or it’s up against that.”

In fact, Jane’s slot came free when NBC canned Heist and Kidnapped, which also aired on Global. ‘They weren’t really making inroads against CSI,’ Shipton acknowledges. ‘But the great thing is, this is a whole different show, and it’s Canadian content.’

This counter-programming argument is similar to what CTV is doing with Robson Arms and Jeff Ltd. on Saturday, where they are up against Hockey Night in Canada, which pulls in about 1.3 million. Not everyone wants to watch hockey on a Saturday night, goes the thinking, and while hockey skews to men, Jeff Ltd., interestingly, has been skewing to women.

Neither CTV’s Boyce nor Global’s Shipton would disclose their targets for their respective shows, though both said they want to see an uptick from the first season. Jeff averaged in the high sevens, while Jane, which ran in the summer in its first season — when most of us were away on vacation — peaked at about 350.

But when you’re dealing with underdog fare of any kind – be it new, Canadian, or both, programming pretty much comes down to the arrangement of short sticks anyway.

Broadcast execs describe the act of programming as ‘organic,’ and ‘three-dimensional.’ A potent alchemy of left and right brain, business and art. No wonder we have to pinch ourselves when paydirt is struck, like CTV has done with Corner Gas and CBC has been doing with Little Mosque on the Prairie.

One thing’s for sure, though, you’re not likely to see the likes of Corner Gas popping up on a Saturday night anytime soon.