Starting this year with its 21st annual edition, the Gemini Awards are taking a cue from the Junos, crisscrossing the country in roadshow format. Canada’s national television awards show will host its 2006 final-night gala from the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, BC on Nov. 4.

Global Television will broadcast for the second straight year, while its glam news show Entertainment Tonight Canada will handle pre-show red carpet duties. Last year’s treatment from Global raised the star quotient, but the ratings still fizzled at slightly more than 200,000 when the Gems faced off against Hockey Night in Canada, which netted 1.6 million viewers.

The caster won’t be able to use many hit shows as a selling point to spike viewership this year, as defunct CBC drama This Is Wonderland leads the nominations with an even dozen and Trailer Park Boys, which won two years ago for best comedy, chose not to submit this time around. CTV’s Corner Gas, nom’d for both best comedy and ensemble cast, should bring some eyeballs to the big show, while sci-fi drama ReGenesis, coming off its second season on The Movie Network and Movie Central, has 10 noms.

The road to the West Coast began several years ago when Bridget Prochaska, former western chair of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, tabled the idea of moving the Gems out of Toronto. But it wasn’t until Terry McEvoy, the present western chair, brought it to the Academy’s national board that it became a real possibility. He was backed by local production heavyweights including Michael Francis, chair of B.C. Film, Arthur Evrensel, partner at the Heenan Blaikie law firm, and Crawford Hawkins, managing director of the B.C. District Council of the Directors Guild of Canada.

‘[From] our four Rolodexes,’ recalls McEvoy, ‘we pulled together enough support from the community, which has really been behind it.’ He adds that there’s always been a desire to change 20 years of the ‘$1,500 cup of coffee,’ referring to the cost of a flight to Toronto for the awards night.

‘It’s not about fear, envy or alienation,’ he stresses. ‘It’s about the welcoming spirit of potlatch.’ If you’re not familiar with potlatch, McEvoy explains that it’s a native word referring to the generosity of a chief who invites everyone over and then gives away everything he has.

‘[Vancouver] has been producing a significant proportion of our weekly dramatic TV series,’ says Academy chair Paul Gratton. ‘They often feel neglected or marginalized – that there’s a block at the Rockies.’

Location isn’t the only change for the Gems. They’re now up to 87 categories – including new addition best cross-platform project – which will be spread over four nights. The first three evenings are still in Toronto, moving a short cab ride further west from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre – the traditional venue – to the Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex overlooking Lake Ontario.

‘This is an enormously prolific industry that employs a lot of people who work their butts off and who are talented,’ says Gratton in defense of the category expansion.

But while the Gems are acknowledged as a somewhat essential industry affair, they’ve seen their television audience wither from a high of more than one million viewers in the mid-’90s. Which begs the question: If relatively few people are tuning in to the shows honored with nominations – apart from the likes of HNIC and Corner Gas – then what is the purpose of a televised awards show?

‘I’m not sure winning a Gemini has ever doubled anyone’s broadcast ratings,’ says Gratton, who is also an executive at CHUM Television. ‘But I know that when somebody writes a letter complaining about a show that gets cancelled, they mention it’s a Gemini winner. It says that a group of peers identified an extraordinary effort. I think what the Academy does with the Genies and Geminis is a very noble thing.’

What about the Gemini paradox that sees cancelled shows such as The Eleventh Hour, Naked Josh and This Is Wonderland honored by Academy juries?

‘Pursuing ratings is a completely different exercise than pursuing awards,’ Gratton says. ‘We’re trying to draw attention to shows and to create and support a Canadian star system. Is it tragic that something that’s been cancelled for ratings reasons just happens to be anointed by the jury as demonstrating excellence? I don’t think so.’

Citing the rise of pay-TV and specialty channel nominations (three shows out of six in the comedy series category and four out of five in drama this year), Gratton notes that if the Gemini selection process was just about rewarding ratings, then the cable channels would be left out of the party.

Most awards shows, however – whether the Oscars, Emmys or Golden Globes – are fueled by hit movies and shows. And Gratton is the first to point out that the Gemini ratings reflect the amount of interest that the English-Canadian public has in the domestic shows the awards celebrate.

‘We’ve seen significant erosion of ratings for major [scripted] series on conventional TV – with notable exceptions like Corner Gas,’ he says. ‘[That show is] worth its weight in gold for the numbers it generates and for the interest [it creates] for the Geminis.’

As another showdown with Hockey Night in Canada approaches, it might be wiser to focus on McEvoy’s spirit of potlatch. Despite funding problems for programming, cancelled nominees and concerns about structural changes to the Canadian television environment, Gratton remains adamant about the relevance of the Geminis.

‘Maybe it’s a miracle good television gets made given the circumstances,’ he says. ‘But it does, year in and year out. This is the one occasion to jump up and celebrate.’

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