The familiar adage ‘everything old is new again’ is ringing true once more, this time in Canadian television variety programming.

Variety series call to mind the likes of cbc’s perennial The Tommy Hunter Show, but over the past 20 years these programs fell to extinction under the onslaught of slick music videos and the blitz of sitcoms and movies-of-the-week in those coveted early evening family time slots.

But the pendulum seems to be slowly swinging back.

‘Variety gave way to videos, but now, oddly enough, videos have in turn recreated an interest in seeing artists live,’ says Sandra Faire, who predicts variety’s comeback in the not-too-distant future.

A music/comedy producer at cbc since 1983, three of Faire’s shows are up for Geminis, with Buffy Sainte-Marie: Up Where We Belong picking up four nominations and George Fox: Time of My Life and Comics! toting two apiece.

Faire has played a major role in rejuvenating interest in the music variety genre as creator/producer of Canada’s only currently airing primetime music series, Rita & Friends, now in its third season. She credits Rita with initiating a shift back to music programming on Canadian television and is laying her bets that the variety show of yesteryear is slowly reinventing itself.

Other broadcasters and producers thought Faire was crazy for trying to launch a music series three years ago and laid their cards on a quick death. ‘It was seen as a bold experiment, a huge, huge risk,’ she says. But the gamble paid off, with Rita averaging a million viewers per show in its first season and continuing these strong numbers over the next two seasons.

The tv industry was impressed. ‘Once they saw it was a huge success, other broadcasters became interested and started talking to me about the show,’ says Faire.

Value for the dollar makes music variety an attractive option. ‘They are looking at our show and saying it’s inexpensive Canadian content that they have a chance of getting an audience for,’ says Faire. ‘It’s less expensive than launching a drama series and it’s getting good ratings, so they are starting to revisit that.

‘Variety has come full circle.’

A booming Canadian music scene is also sparking the return of the old genre. In the ’70s and ’80s the music industry slowed down, translating into a lack of interest in tv music programs. But with homegrown artists like Shania Twain, Alanis Morrisette, Jann Arden and Amanda Marshall making waves not only in Canada but on the American and international fronts, Canadian variety specials and series are a much better pitch than a decade ago, with the potential of mass audiences domestically as well as program sales to the u.s.

‘The creation of Rita around the same time as the emergence of many Canadian artists on the international scene, and the publicity this has led to, has created an appetite in viewers to see more,’ says Faire. ‘One has fed off the other.’

Record companies, particularly Sony and emi, are also fueling the regeneration of the music genre, investing money in tv music programming as they begin to notice a direct relationship between an artist’s primetime tv appearance and record sales.

Part of what Faire dubs the Rita & Friends ‘phenomenon’ is the fact that alternative acts have seen record sales boost after their appearance on the show, finding wider audiences on the public broadcaster than via videos on MuchMusic.

A rebirth of the variety series is going to take time. ‘Perhaps as Canadians we are just slow to seize upon success,’ says Faire.

But while the variety genre goes through its growing pangs, one-off music specials are cropping up across the tv universe, serving as a testing ground and setting the stage for a swing toward more variety series. As Faire points out, Rita & Friends was itself a spin-off of Rita MacNeil’s Once Upon a Christmas special.

While these programs aren’t a new format – Anne Murray specials have been produced for years – the category is now booming, with Bryan Adams, Michelle Wright and Corey Hart specials following on the heels of their international success. Lower production costs, record company incentives, and the way these one-offs give a network edge and hipness (a la Citytv) is making broadcasters sit up and listen.

‘There’s going to be more of these music specials down the road,’ predicts Faire. ‘I think it’s going to be the biggest area of expansion with more and more record companies encouraging their artists to do television and investing money in these shows.’

After keeping a music variety series alive for three years, Faire is well aware of the obstacles facing the genre.

To generate the ratings crucial to a series’ survival, Faire stresses the importance of presenting a diversity of artists, from pop, folk and blues to rock and alternative. While network executives questioned whether this musical milieu would alienate viewers, Faire found it to be the magic ingredient, with Rita & Friends finding its niche in the family zone where parents, kids, teens and grandparents are tuning in to the medley of music styles offered.

Booking alternative acts has also been a source of contention. Networks like to see the safe bets – big-name, mainstream guests – that will generate high ratings in those coveted primetime slots. But Faire has fought to remain true to the variety series tradition of offering audiences both successful stars as well as alternative and newly emerging talent.

Time slots are the ultimate deciding factor in the fate of a variety series, a lesson Faire learned from bitter experience. For its third season, cbc programmers moved Rita from its successful Friday night slot to Wednesday, where its audience was split and ratings floundered up against the sitcom lineups across the networks.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday night are generally the only time slots where variety garners enough numbers. Case in point, cbc has rebuilt the Friday night schedule into a comedy/music series package, with Royal Canadian Air Farce leading in to Rita, followed by a repeat of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Ratings just in put Rita back in the million viewer range.

Corresponding with variety’s changing tide, Faire’s own career is also coming full circle. She is leaving the cbc in February, returning to her origins in independent music and comedy production.

‘I can’t tell you how much interest I’ve had from other broadcasters, so there is a market out there,’ says Faire. ‘In the next year or two we are going to definitely see more music programs on tv and another primetime music series on a different broadcaster.’