Strike-beleaguered CBS picking up CTV made-in-Canada drama

[villager]

Source: Below the Line

From the great (greening) north comes this report on how American-based networks are plugging the strike-spawned “content holes” on their schedules. And this, after the news that NBC/Universal/GE was buying a large stake in India-based NDTV. Content, thy name is “outsourcing!”:


Strike-beleaguered CBS picking up CTV made-in-Canada drama

By Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - American broadcaster CBS, apparently looking for options amid a prolonged Hollywood screenwriters strike, has picked up an original CTV show to be broadcast later this year in the United States.

“Flashpoint,” a police drama with the working title “Sniper,” is currently in pre-production. CTV says it will become the first Canadian series since “Due South” to air on both American and Canadian network TV. CBS has picked up 13 episodes of the one-hour drama series, which was green-lit by CTV in December. Production begins in Toronto in April.

The show will star Enrico Colantoni of “Veronica Mars” fame, Hugh Dillon, the former punk rocker-turned-actor who starred in the gritty “Durham County” and David Paekau of CTV’s “Whistler.” They play cops on a highly skilled tactical team.

“Today’s announcement is a significant achievement for CTV’s development team and Canada’s independent production community,” CTV’s Susanne Boyce said in a statement.


Read more: http://btlnews.com/blog/archives/134

[SoCalDem]

1. actually, I ENJOY Canadian tv shows..and some of the BBC shows too

"Life on Mars" was a very good series..

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. How about Da Vinci's Inquest?

I have seen it on in late night syndication - but it is of much better quality than American crime dramas in prime time.

[Dhalgren]

3. Yeah I really like "Da Vinci's Inquest" it is a very good show.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. I would love to see it on a regular network

it looks like it was filmed in HD too. I think I get it on San Diego UPN.

[Doctor_J]

9. It's on Superstation WGN

which most cable companies & dish networks get. It used to be on every day at 1:00 I think

[villager]

4. Not sayin' they're bad shows... And I wonder if such imports will "spoil" viewers

freed of their usual pablum?

[murielm99]

6. That is a wonderful show.

Have you seen the one that follows, Da Vinci's City Hall?

I like that one even better. I read that the Canadians are fighting to get that one back on the air with new episodes. I hope they can do that.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. I have never actually seen it on TV in Canada

I think it was done for before I started working up here,

[CK_John]

23. The best primer on real world politics, should be mandatory for all candidates. n/t

[Doctor_J]

8. I like Canadian TV

There are some really good actors who are from Canada and show up on US TV & TV movies - Bruce Greenwood & Ken Welsh pop to mind. This could be a new trend.

[MinM]

11. Degrassi Junior High

[grytpype]

10. They should get "Garth, Gord, Fiona and Alice!"

I love that show.

[tomreedtoon]

12. Wonderful. Now we're supporting scab Canadians.

We're outsourcing writers. We're approving of Wal-Mart tactics for American television.

You guys call yourselves progressives, and you're cheering on THIS crap?

You're stabbing the writers of the WGA in the back, and you're putting money in the hands of Viacom, one of the monopolies that is shoving Republican lies down America's throats.

You want to support Canadian television? Get cable. Steal it off a satellite. Get the shows off Bittorrent. If you don't know how to use Bittorrent, hang around a high school and ask the nerdiest looking student. But don't reward Viacom for screwing writers out of an honest living.

[Coexist]

14. that was my first thought.

I even gave up *sniff* Jon and Stephen (after I watched their first night back) in support of the writers.

I hope people think about NOT turning these shows on.

[tomreedtoon]

29. It's not even Comedy Central's shows that are worst.

It's the standard brand sitcoms and adventure shows...for this and next season...that are the problem. As you gaze at the DVD sets of Heroes and - shows you may not watch, but which are the meat and potatoes of TV - know that NBC, CW and the other Big Boys are making fortunes on them, while the writers make four cents per copy. And the other workers like actors and directors aren't doing well either.

I work in TV, as an engineer/director at a local affiliate. I'm one of the few grunts working in TV that still care about and love the medium. Even a low-level silly sitcom like Samantha Who? keeps people happy and has fine performances. And when TV really excels, it can be fantastic; I remember Roots and The Sopranos and SCTV. I hate to see the special, good TV shows destroyed because big corporations want to strip-mine the national consciousness.

[dhill926]

16. yes...

yes...and yes....

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

20. I consider myself progressive, and the WGA can goto hell

I am not a big fan of exclusionary guilds, I am more concerned about the working people including many writers the WGA doesn't want who are facing financial ruin because of this stike than the top shelf writers holding out for their 1/100th of a cent on iTunes TV downloads

[Zhade]

25. What fucking bullshit.

The AMPTP walked away without even trying to negotiate a fair deal. THEY are to blame, not the WGA for not taking a 90% pay cut in residuals.

Your ignorance isn't very progressive.

[tomreedtoon]

28. That's the CEO's argument. And untrue.

Go to the WGA web site and read the truth. Most writers are not wealthy. They barely make enough money to keep up a middle-class home in California, and you can't write for TV without being on the spot.

The line about the "writers WGA doesn't want" is encouragement to scab writers, betraying their future just so they can get to write and <i>According to Jim</i> script for pennies, while Disney makes a freaking fortune on the show.

[customerserviceguy]

21. There's tons of programming out there

the proliferation of cable networks means that there are decades worth of reruns that most people have never seen. The writers had better settle this quickly, or they're going to find that the public has moved on. We're coming up on deadlines for production of new pilots for fall series, and if those get missed, television as we know it will come to an end.

I'm really not going to miss it, I pretty much gave up most commercial television about ten years ago, but there are a lot of people working hard making a living off of it who will have to find other things to do in a really shitty economy.

[provis99]

31. that's basically why they're filming in Canada

a lot of tv shows you think are set in America are filmed in Vancouver or Toronto, because film and tv workers are much less unionized; wages for behind-the-camera jobs are downright shitty for what film and tv people get paid in New York and Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, Canada currently has a fundamentalist Christian in office whose government is openly hostile to labor and unions. What is needed is more international union organizing in the film and tv industry as with other occupations.

Just another example of corporate outsourcing the potentially good-paying jobs. You know, the ones that Bill Clinton claimed Americans would have when free trade barriers fell?

[Not a robought]

32. Oh please, stretch much?

Productions in Vancouver are well staffed by IATSE, NABET, DGC, and the Writer's Guild of Canada who have their own agreement. And contrary to that, people are well taken care of here, that is when there's work to be had.

Yes there are low budget indies and low budget producers here, just like there are in LA and every other production center. Those are the "dues" you pay when starting out until you get to a point where scale no longer matters and you get to name your fee and the projects you work on.

But now because of the dollar there's a lot of people up here who will have to think hard about this upcoming year and whether they'll be able to continue plying their trade, nevermind the affect of the strike.

Last week I met with a previous president of the WGA who while not in the leadership structure any longer is holding out hope things will settle in the coming weeks. We shall see. From what I've been reading the WGA members appear to be publicly airing inner turmoil within the ranks and there are problems with members and it's leadership. But I also read there's some writer contentment with the deal the DGA settled.

Production is not the exclusive domain of LA or the US for that matter. And more often than not, you're watching a co-production that involved multiple production companies in various countries who all license to their own territories. You can hardly wage protectionism when it comes to a cultural product.

But please, leave the fiction to the writers.

[Ellen Forradalom]

13. I want Tele-Quebec programming

for my French.

[ckramer]

15. Many British shows are excellent

I don't mind watching them.

In fact I was watching Jane Austen last night over Bush's speech.

[RamboLiberal]

17. Nothing new - networks did same thing during 88 strike

Back then they were even more dependent on series TV not having the reality shows. They were bringing in shows from UK and Australia.

Now they are also picking up cable series:

NBC plans full seasons of sibling USA Network series Monk and Psych starting March 2, Sundays at 8 and 9 ET/PT, and CBS will air Showtime's dark drama Dexter Sundays at 10 beginning Feb. 17. Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which moved to USA last fall, popped up in reruns on NBC last week, Wednesdays at 9.

Studios are busily shopping other cable series, from TNT's The Closer to FX's Nip/Tuck to AMC's Mad Men, hoping big broadcasters will be hungry for replacement series now that the supply of new scripted programming is largely exhausted.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2008-01-14-cable-to-network_N.htm

[Newsjock]

18. Someone needs to pick up 'jPod' down here

CBC's new series based on the Douglas Coupland book, and it's rioutously funny, but in a self-aware, intelligent way. (You'd expect anything else from Coupland?)

As a bonus, Alan Thicke plays our star's father.

http://cbc.ca/jpod

Oh: It's filmed and set in Vancouver. Scab-free, for those who care.

[damntexdem]

19. Good, the programming will improve.

Canadian and BBC programs are generally better than American programs -- not that that's saying a lot.

Although some American programs are good. In that vein, on CBS, the new episodes of Jericho that were already in the can will now be highlighted as new programming, starting in February.

But wouldn't you know? It'll be broadcast on a night that I teach! I think it will be available on the web, though.

[CHIMO]

22. Not Only CTV

The Cons have taken over the CBC. As a result they have sold-off 700 hrs of programing without a tender.

So where do you think it is going to go?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=190x23472

The CBC has lost money on the deal. The corporations get a bit more programing to try and screw the unions.

[MilesColtrane]

24. The new CBS schedule is rumored to include:

Two and a Half Hosers
The Back Bacon Theory
RCMCSI (Royal Canadian Mounted Crime Scene Investigation)
60 Tuques
The Moose Whisperer
Face the Commonwealth

[Thor_MN]

26. Pretty sure that "Corner Gas" is Canadian, and I record it off of WGN

Funnier than most US network programming in my book.

[originalpckelly]

27. I loved Due South, great show!

Thank you kindly has become apart of my own vocabulary, scary, I know.

[Tesha]

30. Now if they'd just pick up some CBC news programs, some BBC series, etc. ...

...We might have some TV actually worth watching again in
this country.

Tesha

[Sabriel]

33. Maybe they'll pick up Canadian ads, too.

Roll up the rim, anyone?

I vote for "Girls Behaving Badly." Very funny.

[CatholicEdHead]

34. I know Red Green reruns are on many PBS stations

But they should also think about brining This Hour has 22 Minutes down.

I would not mind Red Green reruns on US Network TV for a while.

[KamaAina]

35. When are we getting Terrance and Phillip?

(pppppppffffffffffttttt)

[MetaTrope]

36. Canada? Feh

If they started importing Korean TV dramas, maybe I'd reattach my antenna again for the first time in 15 years.