Canadian

fare should

hold its own

This year’s annual blitz of fall program launches has roused media buyers from the stupor of last season’s skeds, leaving them lukewarm on the new Canadian content but a little inspired by the big picture of the 1995/96 television season.

‘Last year’s new season was the world’s most boring. We’re a little bit more excited this time around,’ says Sunni Boot, vp, managing director at Optimedia.

The Dan Quayle/Murphy Brown family values agenda is less in the television spotlight this year, so new programs out of the u.s. are a little raunchier, with more innuendo and a broader appeal, says Boot. Adult comedy is back with even mainstay shows like Roseanne and Ellen moving a hour ahead to a more popular audience, and boomers be damned, it’s the season for twentysomething sitcoms. Friends rates, and predictably, a season later it’s Clonesville.

Strong u.s. skeds have overshadowed the launch of the few new Canadian programs. Some media buyers say the new Cancon will reap the benefits of being sandwiched between popular u.s. fodder, while others wonder if the tight u.s. skeds are forcing them to be programmed on nights traditionally an audience wasteland.

Between the CTV Television Network, CanWest Global and cbc, primetime viewing for the 1995/96 season will include 4.5 hours of new Canadian entertainment. CanWest leads the pack with the most new Cancon, two hours weekly over last year. Overall, both Global and ctv, in combination with their affiliates, will broadcast 50% Canadian content in primetime; cbc says its Cancon numbers are up 2% from last year to 90%.

At the ctv launch, president John Cassaday confirmed that Alliance’s Due South has been renewed for a second season, despite the anticipated bailout by cbs. It will return to its Thursday, 8 p.m. slot, but is up against competition more fierce than last year. Global has moved Friends, last season’s sleeper that now has a cult following rivaling Melrose Place, to the top of the hour.

The Thursday night lineup of Friends at 8 p.m., Seinfeld at 9 p.m., simulcast by Global this year, is the strongest night on television in five years. But Due South has its own established audience, skewed more family than the Gen-X group latching onto Friends, and is expected to maintain its following in the 8 p.m. slot.

ctv’s Taking the Falls, the new one-hour action comedy produced by Alliance in association with ctv, airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. in the spot long held by W5. It will run opposite CBC Prime Time News and Courthouse, a new u.s. program starring thirtysomething’s Patricia Wettig.

According to Arthur Weinthal, vp, entertainment programming at ctv, Taking the Falls is positioned as an alternative to the heavy drama and news in that hour. The placement also allows ctv to run some news programming in the Thursday 9-10 p.m. slot, via W5, against the sixth season of Seinfeld and cbc’s North of 60 produced by Alliance and Alberta Filmworks.

ctv is commissioning between four and six independent documentaries, which will run intermittently in the W5 slot with prime Thursday night exposure. TekWar, which ran in that slot last season, has been axed from the schedule. The remaining nine episodes already in the can will run as a mid-season replacement, says Weinthal.

Telegenic’s Lonesome Dove is in for a second run, moving back an hour to 10 o’clock on Saturday night, behind The John Larroquette Show and Cybill, and against Hockey Night in Canada and the CanWest Global Showcase.

The Beatles

ctv is also boasting a strong roster of adult entertainment specials including the much ballyhooed The Beatles, a five-hour simulcast with abc.

The children’s programming lineup will see the addition of Cinar’s Little Lulu series and a series of homegrown animated specials: Cinar’s A Bunch of Munsch, Lacewood’s Nilus the Sandman, and The Hockey Skates. YTV News and Game Nation, a show for the video game set, have been renewed. Summerhill Entertainment’s homestyle, a 30-minute lifestyle show, is the single Canadian addition to the m/f daytime sked.

After having a single hour of new Canadian drama last season, CanWest canceled Destiny Ridge and Madison and is working three new program hours into its primetime schedule with the addition of Atlantis’s The Outer Limits, Nelvana’s Jake and the Kid and Traders. Insight’s Ready or Not and The New Red Green Show have been renewed.

Twenty-two episodes of The Outer Limits will air ahead of The X-Files. ‘It’s the same sci-fi kind of audience, with The X-Files already having an established base of viewers,’ says Brian Perdue, supervisor of programming for CanWest.

Jake and the Kid will run Saturday nights at 9 p.m., following j.a.g., a u.s. cops and robbers drama. The slot isn’t perfect for the family audience appeal of Jake and the Kid, says Perdue, but CanWest’s Cancon drama commitment stipulates the majority of programming must run between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. and that limits the show’s placement. It’s one of the better options since John Larroquette and nhl hockey, running at the same time, appeal to totally different targets, he says.

Traders, an Atlantis-produced show about the world of commodity brokers, launches in the Sunday 10 p.m. slot.

The Saturday and Sunday night slots for Canadian shows on the private networks is a necessary function of getting the most out of the u.s. nets’ high-priced simulcast programs, but Carole Roberts, associate media director for Genesis Media, wonders if the positioning won’t undermine their success.

‘There’s weekend space to slot in programs for a reason: Saturday night historically has never been a winning night either here or in the u.s. People are out instead of in front of the television.’

Global’s children’s programming schedule, running 60% Cancon, looks much like last year’s with the renewal of Tell-a-Tale Town, Care Bears, Teddy Ruxpin, and Prisma’s Kitty Cats. Since Sailor Moon was dubbed in Canada, the new Japan-produced show meets the 50% Cancon qualifications, but that’s the extent of new Global children’s programming, says Perdue.

However, 65 new episodes each of Kitty Cats and Tell-a-Tale Town have been ordered, along with 13 of Blue Rainbow and 26 of Atlantis’ Tales From the Cryptkeeper, he adds.

At cbc’s launch, Jim Byrd, vp English television networks, told the audience there is more regional programming than ever before on cbc’s ’95/96 schedule, with 50% of Canadian productions coming from independent producers, 12% more than last year. cbc is carrying one half-hour less American programming in primetime than last season, and one full hour less, daytime, Monday to Friday.

‘There will be even more Canadian content in next year’s schedule. Our goal is to bring 100% Canadian programs from sign-on to sign-off,’ says Byrd.

That being said, Byrd and Phyllis Platt, executive director, arts and entertainment, took some heat from the audience over cbc’s purchase of Central Park West, the latest wacky-bunch-of-young-single-people sitcom from Aaron Spelling.

Platt denied speculation that the package of Central Park and Can’t Hurry Love, both from cbs, is costing the public broadcaster as much as $80,000 per week. She wouldn’t reveal the package price, but says $80,000 a week ‘is wildly exaggerated. It’s coming in at a very economical price.’

Questioned buy

Others questioned the buy in the wake of cbc’s commitment to 100% Cancon. Platt maintained that the move is a gradual process, dictated by economics. ‘We’re fully committed to 100% Canadian, but we’re in a financial situation that makes it impossible for us to do it in one fell swoop.’

Of the new non-news shows launching in the fall primetime schedule, two are American and one, Howie Mandel’s Sunny Skies, is a coproduction between Atlantis Communications and Showtime, a u.s. pay-tv service.

Two Ivan Fecan-initiated projects, The Rez, produced by Brian Dennis and Bruce Macdonald, and Talk 16, produced by Alliance and cbc, are being reserved as mid-season replacements. Six episodes each have been purchased. Wendy Mesley will anchor Undercurrents, a new current affairs series.

Although Platt is fielding criticism for what some are saying is a lack of vision in the schedule, media buyers are wagering the cbc lineup will come out ahead in the Wednesday night numbers and has a shot at a share of Monday night. Central Park is expected to be huge and boost the Howie Mandel show, airing the half-hour before. With 90210 getting long in the tooth and the rest of the schedule filled with unproven commodities, ‘cbc is thought to be a contender to ‘take Wednesday night.’

On Mondays, with football, mows, and Murder She Wrote to contend with, the Fresh Prince/ Nanny/Can’t Hurry Love package is looking to take the younger audience. Epitome Pictures’ Liberty Street is keeping a Monday slot, although it’s been moved to 9:30 p.m. behind Salter Street’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

The new positioning is good for Liberty Street since This Hour Has 22 Minutes also has a younger audience, says Platt. Still, ratings show Liberty Street did best in the younger skewing markets when it aired behind The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, a slot it was moved into the week of April 3 after losing audience in its original Wednesday 8:30 p.m. slot where it played opposite Beverly Hills 90210.

Liberty ratings

According to A.C. Nielsen ratings, Liberty Street came out with audience ratings of 779,000 the week of Jan. 9, 39,000 in the teen 12-17 group, 259,000 in the 18-34 group. By Feb. 27, the 12-17 share came down to 24,000, and 18-34 down to 113,000, with overall audience at 662,000.

The 12-17 market came back after the move, climbing 57,000 the week of May 1. Ditto the 18-34 group with 190,000 May 1. The four-week average in the new slot was 447,000 overall, 65,000 in the tween bracket, and 136,000 in the 18-34 group.

There’s a chance the Fresh Prince/Nanny/Can’t Hurry Love audience will splinter off, faced with the political comedy of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, says Boot. ‘For my money, I would have flipped 22 Minutes and Liberty Street. Can’t Hurry Love looks like a better opener to Liberty’s audience. But overall, it’s a strong lineup to be part of, and in either the 9 or 9:30 position, Partners and Ned & Stacey are going to give it a run for its money,’ says Boot.

Playground

Nelvana’s Little Bear and Montreal-based Productions sda’s Max the Cat have been added to the cbc Playground package. Thirteen episodes of From the Hip, a magazine-style series for teens, are being produced in Calgary to air mid-season.

Baton Broadcasting Systems is playing it safe this year and sticking mainly to tried-and-true u.s. material. ‘We’re taking this year to regroup and identify resources, moving ahead slowly,’ says Beverly Oda, bbs senior vp of programming.

Paragon’s Forever Knight is back and a new entertainment show, working title BBS Entertainment, is in the works for the prenews 5:30 p.m. slot. bbs is also looking for ways to adapt regional series for distribution throughout the system, says Oda.

In addition to the eight mow and miniseries properties already being developed, there are two children’s series in development, potentially for next year, ‘although I don’t want to raise anyone’s hopes,’ says Suzanne Steeves, vp, production and distribution at bbs. No new Canadian drama series are on the slate. ‘Not yet, at least,’ Steeves says.

Baton isn’t taking risks with this year’s sked, but it will likely benefit from the combined layout of ctv and Baton.

‘ctv has a solid, strategic schedule, I think mostly a reflection that they and their affiliates have stopped fighting for the best shows. It meshes extremely well with their affiliates,’ says Boot.

The first of the specialties out of the fall launch gate, Discovery Channel, is airing four new Canadian series. Power Play, produced by ctv’s Bob Hurst, is a one-hour adventure show on ‘high-tech play’ (world’s wildest roller coaster ride, test-riding submarines, etc.) hosted by ex-veejay Erica Ehm; Hi-Tech Culture through Omni Film in Vancouver follows up last season’s CyberWars pilot; Andrew Cochran Productions’ On the Internet will pick up where Understanding the Internet left off.

There are five different pilots in production for Discovery’s Great Canadian Parks. By the second week of July, one producer from the group will be selected to produce the show which will air in October.