Canadian TV Fall Preview 2021-22

[Sal]

The Canadian Fall TV Upfronts began today and I'll be here with highlights and links covering the new lineups starting as usual with CBC:

CBC


The proud home of the history-making, Emmy-sweeping "Schitt's Creek" will be looking to add more award winning series to its lineup this fall as the network will feature 4 new comedies, 2 new dramas, 1 new "Factual Entertainment" (reality) series, plus more than 80 new documentaries (a big strength for CBC for many years) running on the main network and their free streaming service CBC Gem, where you can also watch many of their most popular series like "Schitt's Creek", "Family Feud Canada" (Season 3 premiere, Mon. Sept. 27 at 7:30 pm), and "Heartland" (Returning for Season 15 and 10 more episodes Sun Oct. 17 at 7 pm).

The one new documentary I'll be looking to watch this season is called "Harold Ballard: Power Player" about the former owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs who misguided the team through its darkest period in the 70s and 80s. Another treat for sports fans is another documentary called "Superfan" profiling the Toronto Raptors' biggest fan turned national celebrity Nav Bhatia.

The new comedies are as follows:

SORT OF (Premieres Tues. Oct. 5 on CBC Gem and Tues. Nov. 9 on CBC TV; 8x30, Sphere Media’s Sienna Films) from creators Bilal Baig (Acha Bacha) and Fab Filippo (Save Me), is a big-hearted dramatic comedy about Sabi Mehboob (Baig), a fluid millennial who straddles various identities from sexy bartender at an LGBTQ bookstore/bar, to the youngest child in a large Pakistani family, to the de facto parent of a downtown hipster family. Sabi feels like they’re in transition in every aspect of their life, from gender to love to sexuality to family to career. When Sabi’s best friend 7ven (Amanda Cordner) presents them with an opportunity to live and find themself in the "queerest place in the galaxy," Sabi instead makes the decision to stay and care for the kids they nanny after their mom has a serious bike accident. Do they regret it? Sort of. A coming-of-age story, Sort Of is a show about how each and every one of us is in transition.

STRAYS (Premieres Tues. Sept. 14 on CBC TV and CBC Gem; 10x30, Thunderbird Entertainment) follows Shannon Ross (Nicole Power) from Kim’s Convenience as the new executive director of the Hamilton East Animal Shelter, where she is boss to an eclectic staff. Now in her 30s, Shannon is ready for a change and new challenges. She’s putting Toronto in the rearview to focus on her new job, new relationships, reuniting with family and learning more about herself. Shannon’s trademark positivity is put to the test as she manages an oddball team, including her apathetic cousin Nikki (Nikki Duval), her over-eager animal care manager Kristian (Frank Cox O’Connell), her overly sheltered office manager Joy (Tina Jung) and the building’s maintenance guy Paul (Tony Nappo), whose straight-faced prison humour keeps everyone on their toes.

RUN THE BURBS (Winter 2022; 13x30, Pier 21 Films) is created by comedian, writer and actor Andrew Phung (Kim’s Convenience) and his best friend and collaborator, filmmaker Scott Townend (The Secret Marathon). The series follows a young, bold Canadian family taking a different approach to living life to the fullest in the suburbs, featuring Phung as a stay-at-home dad with an entrepreneur wife and two kids.

SON OF A CRITCH (Winter 2022; 13x30, Project 10 Productions) is based on the award-winning, best-selling memoir from Mark Critch (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), created by Critch and Tim McAuliffe (The Office (U.S.), Last Man on Earth) and produced by Andrew Barnsley (Schitt’s Creek). This new original comedy is the hilarious and very real story of 11-year-old Mark coming of age in St. John’s, Newfoundland in the 80s. It’s a heartfelt window into the life of a child - much older inside than his 11 years - using comedy and self-deprecation to win friends and connect with the small collection of people in his limited world.

The descriptions are from the CBC website and press release.

"Son Of A Critch" is based on a best selling book which should become available again in bookstores and libraries once they reopen again after the pandemic ends.

Other returning series that you can look forward to: This Hour Has 22 Minutes (Season 29 - Tue. Sept. 14), Halifax and Winnipeg Comedy Festivals, Murdoch Mysteries (Season 15, Mon. Sept. 13), and Dragons' Den (Season 16, Thursday October 14). Full details on every upcoming series are found here:

Fall Schedule and News

Heartland - Home Page

CBC Gem



So now that the upfronts are underway, things are sure to pick up tomorrow. The next network to step up will be IndieNET, which is made up of 4 independent channels from across Canada: CHEK Vancouver, NTV Newfoundland, Yes TV Ontario and Alberta, and my personal favorite, CHCH TV Hamilton. I know we are all excited and looking forward to that last one to see what great Retro TV goodies they will come up with this season. Just so you won't be put in suspense for too long, I have found an actual (hopefully working!!) LIVE STREAM that will pick up the presentations for all 4 channels at 10:00 am tomorrow morning. I'll have further comments on all the lineups later that day. See you then!!


INDIENET 2021 LIVE

[Sal]

I would have posted this earlier but I couldn't find the fall schedules for the 4 IndieNET channels. Once I was able to locate them, I was not very impressed. You'll notice that they tend to share a fair number of syndicated content, like "Wheel Of Fortune", "Jeopardy", "Judge Judy", "Hot Bench", "Funny You Should Ask" and other daytime filler. The problems lie in what to add to the rest of the schedule. Other than local news and community programs, the answer is not much. This is what the official fall schedules now look like.


NTV Newfoundland - A very typical Canadian TV schedule and close to what you can expect from the other networks when they announce their lineups in a few days.

CHEK Vancouver - Like NTV, they carry a fair amount of local shows, including way too many fishing shows on the weekends. The only notable item worth watching here is the "Comedy Friday" lineup of "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley" which begins at 8 pm in Vancouver and 11 pm in the East.

Yes TV Ontario

Yes TV Alberta

Easily the most disappointing of the 4 channels here. They really should change their name to "No TV" which is what I feel like when I see what they've done. A lot of the same old stuff with no real changes or reasons to do so. The one new addition is a new version of "You Bet Your Life" with Jay Leno as host, which I might watch only if nothing else is on. The best show in their lineup is also the most sadly mistreated. "I Love Lucy" has been moved from 3 to 3:30 am but that's hard to tell unless you have very good eyesight. Have you noticed how every show on the schedule has their names and logos blown up to such a high resolution that you can't possibly miss them but poor Lucy's iconic heart logo has been made to look so small that it resembles that of the Grinch? The Queen of Comedy deserves much better treatment than that.

CHCH Primetime - Like I expected, the evening lineup stinks, with movies and not much else to watch. The big attraction, the daytime retro shows, have been left empty for now with no reason given as to why they have done so. I'm not sure what the big mystery is all about unless there's a big surprise in store that they don't want to reveal yet. When they do, I will post it here on this page. I can say for certain that "The Brady Bunch", "Get Smart", "Gilligan's Island", "Maude" and "Hawaii 5-0" are all coming back, which I was able to learn from watching the promo video. I also learned from the video that "To Tell The Truth" is really awful but I knew that already.

Still to come this week: Rogers/CITY TV, Corus/Global, and Bell/CTV.

[Sal]

UPDATE: I went on the CHCH Facebook page to ask about the fall schedule and I was told that an announcement regarding the new fall lineup will come in a couple of weeks when all the new and returning retro shows will be presented and the schedule will be made official. So we have to wait. I still feel like something is up that we're not expecting. Keep it here for all the details.


Now back to our regularly scheduled upfronts...


CITY TV


The first network to step up to the podium this week is Rogers Media, Canada's 2nd largest cable company which had their upfronts yesterday. Its properties include Sportsnet, (home of NHL hockey and MLB baseball), OMNI, FX Canada, and FXX Canada. It also operates a partnership with the US streaming service TUBI.

Its main network is CITY TV, which this fall will serve as the home for many popular franchise series like "The Bachelor/Bachelorette", "Law & Order" , and the 3 Chicago drama series which they are presenting as "One Chicago". They will also be bringing back "America's Got Talent" as well as a new Canadian version to be called "Canada's Got Talent". The one new series that looks promising is called "Ordinary Joe" where a man faces an uncertain future with 3 possible outcomes. You could say the same about CITY TV and its various properties. Sportsnet's hockey ratings have been down since Don Cherry was fired and the new primetime schedule looks like it was put together in about 5 minutes with a simple cut and paste tool. Overall it doesn't look very impressive to me.


Rogers Media Upfronts

CITY TV Fall Preview

Fall Schedule


Next up later today: Corus Entertainment/Global TV

[Sal]

GLOBAL


Today's upfront presentation comes from Corus Entertainment. The media company made major headlines this past year when it acquired Shaw Media, which was Canada's 3rd biggest cable company behind Bell and Rogers and had been home to Global TV, which is now under the Corus banner. Corus also owns several specialty channels, including ABC Spark (Freeform in the US), the formerly great and now ruined DejaView, Cartoon Network, CMT Canada (better than the US version), Disney, History, Lifetime, Showcase, Slice, Teletoon, and YTV. Corus also owns a streaming platform called STACK TV, which provides programming from all of these channels and will also carry content from NBC's Peacock streaming channel. Shaw was acquired for $2.65 billion so that Corus could catch up to Bell and Rogers in the giant telecommunications industry.

On the television end, looking at its main channel, Global TV, its fall lineup looks to be a little better than what CITY TV has, but not as great as what we'll see from Bell and CTV tomorrow. One thing that Global has in common with CITY is its dependency on hit series that make up part of successful franchises. Both the FBI and NCIS franchises will have new series on Global this fall: "NCIS: Hawaii" at 10:00 pm Mondays and "FBI: International" at 9:00 pm on Tuesdays. Also like CITY and CTV, there won't be many new comedies to find in the lineup, except for "Ghosts", about a couple who unknowingly move into a haunted house, (Thursdays at 9 pm), and "Abbott Elementary", which won't arrive until midseason. Another highlight from the upcoming season which will be seen on the Showcase specialty channel will be the rebooted show "Bel-Air", a new version of "The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air" produced by its original star Will Smith. Global is also expecting big things from a new original series called "Family Law" about an unusual family of lawyers. Overall, the new fall shows aren't too bad but still nothing to get excited about.



Global Press Release

Fall Schedule

Specialty Channels - Fall Highlights


Tomorrow: CTV

[Sal]

CTV


The last Canadian TV upfront presentation comes from Bell Media, home of CTV, Canada's #1 TV network, as well as specialty channels that include MTV, MTV2, Much, TSN (Canada's 2nd biggest sports network and Canada's home for the NFL and NBA), and the CTV brand channels that include CTV Comedy, CTV Drama, CTV Sci-Fi, and CTV 2, its 2nd main network channel. It also hosts the free online streaming sites CTV Throwback and CTV Movies.

CTV has been #1 for more than a decade because of their strong ability to acquire the best and most highly rated new series and keep the top returning shows that have become fan favorites over the years. For example, last season CTV had the top rated sitcoms of 2020-21 "Young Sheldon" and "The Conners" as well as the top new show of the year "B Positive". This season, they are excited about more of their new series, which they hope will keep this trend going, and it wouldn't surprise me if they succeed. The new hopefuls include "The Wonder Years", yet another reboot of an old sitcom narrated by Don Cheadle and directed by original star Fred Savage; "Pivoting" , a midseason sitcom about a group of friends who try to go forward with their lives after the death of their best friend, and "Maggie", another midseason sitcom, about a young blonde psychic who sees her own future while she tries to predict that of her clients. My crystal ball tells me that this show will become a hit and will wrap up another good year for CTV. This summer you can also watch the game shows "Celebrity Dating Game", an update of the old Jim Lange series hosted by Zooey Deschanel ("New Girl") and Michael Bolton, and "Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune", a surprise hit last year for Pat Sajak and Vanna White.

Another little trick that CTV uses to stay on top is the little scheduling quirks that they try with their hit series. For example, this fall, "The Wonder Years" will be on at 7:30 pm on Wed. nights. On Thursdays, they have "B Positive" at 7 pm and "Young Sheldon" at 7:30. This means that all 3 series can be seen in Canada at least an hour before US viewers get to see them for the first time, instead of having them simulcast, which is normal for Canadian networks. (If you need spoiler alerts, you can ask me!) This is just another reason why CTV will continue to be #1 in Canada again this year!


Bell Media Press Release

New Series For Fall 2021

Fall Schedule 2021