CBC Announces Next Season’s Returning Shows

It was a busy day Friday. CBC announced its returning shows for the 2008-2009 season and it looks like somebody decided to do Toronto a solid for putting up with those Maple Leafs.

The news is great if you live in Toronto and want to work in television. It wasn’t so great for other parts of the nation, including Vancouver’s creative community.
The Vancouver-made shows Intelligence and jPod are nowhere to be seen on the slate of returning series. The Toronto-lensed MVP aka Desperate Hockey Wives also appears to have been benched for good. (above, the Intelligence crew, Bernie Coulson, Chris Haddock, John Cassini, Klea Scott and Ian Tracey.)

Looks like the wonks in the centre of the universe have pegged The Border as their flagship series to lead off the season. That decision might inspire a few more American actors longer on legs than talent to take the pay cut and head north.

Deep-sixing jPod, well, that I get. After all, it’s highly problematic when a comedy just isn’t funny. (Don’t believe me? Ask that guy who played Kramer.)

But Intelligence, the thriller starring Ian Tracey? Smart. Brilliantly acted. Beautifully shot. Always provocative. And chronically low-rated according to CBC. Well, maybe it’s just too smart for the room.

It’s unlikely that Chris Haddock, the Vancouver writer-director-producer behind DaVinci’s Inquest, its spin-off DaVinci’s City Hall and Intelligence, is surprised.

I chatted with him last October on the drama’s set and he spoke plainly at the time about his frustration with CBC’s lack of promotion for Intelligence. It’s hard to argue with him…all I had to do to start “investigating” was watch CBC to see if promotional spots were airing – they weren’t.

Like its Haddock predecessors, Intelligence is critically acclaimed and has sold well internationally. DaVinci’s Inquest has been a rating boon for the American syndicated network WGN. So, why would CBC not foster an audience for Haddock’s latest venture? What could be behind such willful neglect? Haddock suggested it was personal, and “added I’ve been through plenty of regimes at CBC over the years.”

If I have to peg a winner at this odd game of Last Man Standing, my money’s on Haddock. Presumably, his excellent and in-the-can DaVinci TV move, The Quality of Life, will air next season. In the meantime, he continues to talk with American network execs about a possible U.S. pick-up of Intelligence.

Meanwhile, over at CTV, Robson Arms will make another “special “ appearance this week…on Monday (March 10) at 8:30 pm, running after Corner Gas, 8 pm, but Robson Arms still hasn’t been officially returned to the schedule…Yes, three episodes have aired, but its season still hasn’t really started…Really?…Oh, where do I start?

But the news isn’t all gloom and doom in Vancouver…have you heard the CW's Supernatural and Smallville have been renewed?

Here’s what you can expect more of on CBC next fall: Heartland, writer Heather Conkie’s family drama based on the books of the same name; Sophie, a drama starring Natalie Brown as a single mom (it’s been picked up by ABC Family; and The Tudors, a co-production with U.S.-based Showtime, was a given, as its second season has already wrapped.

Look for returning comedies The Rick Mercer Report, Little Mosque on the Prairie, This Hour Has 22 Minutes (and nine lives), Air Farce and Just for Laughs.

And for non-fiction fans, (a genre CBC does a well as any broadcaster in the world), there’ll be more from the fifth estate (yay!), Marketplace, Doc Zone and The Nature of Things. And there’ll be new seasons of Dragons Den, Triple Sensation, Test the Nation and Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister and of course, The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print. Pass the Tylenol.