‘Housewives’ producer criticizes CTV
BEVERLY HILLS — Marc Cherry had no idea that CTV used his hit show Desperate Housewives as a Juno Award promotional stunt last season.
“It sounds horrible,” was the Emmy-nominated executive producer’s initial reaction when the Sun told him of the brazen programming ploy.
Last February, CTV — the rights holder to Desperate Housewives in Canada — took an hour-long episode of the hit ABC soap and broadcast it over 90 minutes. Padding it out was red-carpet coverage from Winnipeg — the site of The Junos — at the beginning and end of each commercial break.
“I don’t think it’s the best way to showcase Desperate Housewives,” said Cherry. “I think it takes people out of the moment of the show, so I would question the wisdom of doing that in terms of what the fans would like to see.”
Viewers who wrote the Sun at the time felt frustrated and “hijacked” by the CTV stunt.
“It’s not how I like my show being viewed,” Cherry added, while at the same time acknowledging that CTV “bought it, they paid for it and they can show it however they like.”
That being said, CTV’s Juno coverage may not be so Desperate next time. Despite the unprecedented use of the imported hit to hype a domestic award show, ratings for the annual music industry salute were down for the second year in a row, according to BBM Canada.
Cherry was all over the Television Critics Association’s 21st annual award show Saturday night. Besides accepting the critic’s nod for Program Of The Year, he stuck around for the rowdy after party, which has descended of late into a tipsy salute to the most intimidating critic on press tour (The Tony Soprano Award), the purveyor of the most useless knowledge (The Cliff Clavin Award) and other frat house funnies.
Cherry took time out from the hijinx to confirm that some new faces are moving on to Wisteria Lane next season.
Former Partridge Family mom Shirley Knight will appear as Marcia Cross’ mother-in-law from Hell. Joely Fisher (Ellen) is also confirmed for next season. And Cherry let slip that he recently had lunch with former Knots Landing diva Donna Mills, who could re-team with hottie Nicolette Sheridan.
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