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CBC

Promoting the mother corp

Upcoming CBC-TV season to focus on Canadian drama
CBC-TV has announced a redoubled focus on Canadian dramatic programming in its 2005-06 season.
Beginning this fall, the network plans to build on the past success of its “high impact drama” strategy by devoting the prime time slots on Sunday and Monday nights to Canadian dramatic specials and miniseries, CBC-TV announced in a media briefing on Thursday.
Long-awaited projects like The Tommy Douglas Story, the prequel to the 2002 Trudeau miniseries, Shania: A Life in Eight Albums and Waking Up Wally: The Walter Gretzky Story will come to air.
“Our number one goal is to increase viewing to our network,” said Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC-TV. “The season … is designed to bring to more Canadians more of the shows they want to see.”
A major challenge is determining how to compete against top ranked U.S. shows like Desperate Housewives, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and ER, which air on other Canadian networks during prime time, said Slawko Klymkiw, executive director of network programming.
CBC-TV’s strategy is to offer “more and better distinctively Canadian programming,” Klymkiw said. “We have to know who we are and what we do best. We have to make ourselves heard over the noise of the marketplace.”
Canadians have certain expectations of a public broadcaster, Klymkiw said, among them high quality Canadian drama, comedy and children’s programming as well as top notch news and Canadian sports coverage. “And of course they expect Coronation Street. God help you if you don’t give it to them,” he said. The popular British series will be on five nights a week.
“We have to give them things they can’t get anywhere else,” he said. “We’re opening up the floodgates on Canadian drama. We’re putting it on the air when Canadians are watching TV √± in prime time.”
Popular shows like This is Wonderland and Rick Mercer’s Report will return. Rick Mercer’s comedy vehicle has dropped the “Monday” from its name because of a move to Tuesday evenings beginning this fall.
New additions will include Da Vinci’s City Hall, which will follow the fictional Vancouver coroner-turned-mayor, and Brad Peyton’s stop-motion animated comedy series What It’s Like Being Alone.
The sports lineup includes coverage of the 2006 Torino Games in Turin, the Canadian Football League and the National Hockey League, if it returns. News programs are being revamped, with a pilot project that will restore local suppertime newscasts in St. John’s, Montreal and Edmonton to a full hour, Stursberg said.
Further details about the season will be announced in early September.