Coming soon to a broadcaster near you, the docusoap has finally arrived in Canada.

Arguably, a docusoap is a docuseries that centres on the ongoing stories of everyday people in everyday situations. And in the same fashion as cinema verite, pioneered by the National Film Board more than 40 years ago, it provides a bird’s-eye view of real events as they unfold.

Although no one has finished producing one here, a handful of Canadian doc producers and broadcasters are paving the way for the British-born trend, which may or may not explode onto the Canadian scene.

Great North Productions in Edmonton is currently in post-production with The Cruise, the first domestically produced docusoap, set to air on the Life Network July 16.

The series, divided into three one-hour episodes, is budgeted at $120,000 an hour.

Like the title suggests, it takes place on a cruise and follows the lives of various passengers and crew and staff members.

‘We had less idea where it was going than most of the projects we do – that’s what makes a docusoap so interesting – it would have been impossible to tell what the show was going to look like,’ says executive producer Andy Thomson, adding: ‘We’re hoping we can go back next year and do 13 half-hours.’

But how Canadian audiences will react is still unknown.

‘It’s very seductive when you consider the eight or 10 million viewers [docusoaps] attract in Britain, but what’s their population? I don’t think we’re going to get such an audience,’ says Barri Cohen, consulting editor of pov magazine.

Cohen also points out that British audiences are further along on the docuscale than Canadians are. ‘Because of the BBC 1, BBC 2 and Channel 4, their audiences are exposed to hours upon hours of primetime documentary programming.’

But comparing the British television culture to that of Canadians is like apples and oranges.

Britain has a five-channel universe where satellite penetration is marginal; at the very least, Canada has 30 channels.

‘How well docusoaps are doing [in Britain] won’t translate in the same way because the market is so much more fragmented and competitive here,’ says Rudy Buttignol, head of documentaries at tvontario. He’s been acquiring docusoaps for several years and would be interested in commissioning one that ‘stretches beyond entertainment.’

With the expansion of cable channels, Buttignol recognizes there is a trend toward docusoaps in Canada because they are relatively cheap to produce and the ratings are good, ‘sort of like when we were in our Candid Camera phase.’

Jerry McIntosh, exec producer of cbc’s Rough Cuts, agrees. ‘Docusoaps are the new kids on the block and I think all broadcasters are looking at them because they simplify the commissioning process, they make sense economically and people like to play with the form,’ he says, although Newsworld has yet to commission a docusoap because its mandate is limited to single documentaries.

cbc’s main network, however, recently commissioned its first docusoap, Niagara Falls, six half-hour episodes on the people who make Niagara Falls the biggest tourist attraction in the world.

Budgeted at $200,000 a half-hour, the project has been in development with Montreal producer Arnie Gelbart of Galafilm for more than 18 months, including three months of extensive research in Niagara Falls.

‘For years we wanted to do something on the Canadian/ American border,’ says Gelbart, who initiated the series with associated producer Willa Marcus (Venture). And ‘for years, we’ve been wanting to commission a docusoap,’ adds Marie Natanson, executive producer of independent documentaries at the cbc. ‘We hope to do more of these.’

And more of these the cbc will be doing.

As part of the ‘Canadianization’ of the cbc daytime network, the broadcaster has been instrumental in developing Little Miracles, a 13-part, half-hour docusoap that chronicles the daily lives of the patients, families and staff at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

‘It’s equivalent to er, only it’s real-life drama with real-life emotions as they happen and it’s cheaper to produce,’ says executive producer Peter Williamson. ‘[Docusoaps] provide an opportunity to put documentaries into primetime and within the reach of a popular audience who would normally be interested in drama.’

The series, budgeted at $1.3 million in total, is a Breakthrough Films/Wychwood Park Productions/hatasa coprod and is heading into production this summer with four crews. The series will air on the Life Network (first window) and cbc (second window).

‘It’s the first world exclusive. . . the first time the hospital has let any crew in to shoot a series,’ boasts Williamson.

Finding a setting where human emotion is forced to come into play, ‘places where shit happens,’ says Cohen, is key to the workings of a docusoap.

It should then be no coincidence that of the small group of Canadian docusoaps underway, two are taking place in hospitals.

The second, Urban Angels, focuses on the daily drama at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and is set to kick off the season on Discovery in early September.

It is also 13 half-hours, budgeted at an estimated $1 million.

‘The British docusoaps I’ve seen are cute and quirky and they don’t get into characters, the vulnerabilities, the tough decisions, which is what this project is all about,’ says executive/supervising producer Lon Appleby of Infinite Monkeys, who has had a longtime fascination with ‘following people in big institutions.’

Seven two-person crews will be heading into the hospital for production in early June for three weeks.

‘I want us to be seen. I want people to feel like they’re participating and not that we’re hiding, because that’s what verite is about,’ says Appleby, who is coproducing the series with partner Howard Bernstein and Microtainment Plus International’s Garry Blye and Mark Shekter.

‘It’s classic storytelling. Getting intimate with people and observing them in their natural element, just like Robert Flaherty did way back when.’

Meanwhile, David McIlvride, director of The Cruise, is much less enthusiastic and says he does not look forward to working on a docusoap again.

‘It’s a crap shoot and you need a lot of time and money to find the right people and get them to trust you. We’re just not in the same boat as the Brits in this respect.’