CBC fall lineup leans heavily on reality shows
CBC Television has unveiled a fall lineup heavy on reality shows, with four prime-time offerings from its newly created factual entertainment division.
Three new ongoing drama series — a crime show, a medical show and a 20-episode comedy series based on a program that is already a hit in Quebec — were also in the season preview revealed Thursday in Toronto.
The public broadcaster plans more daily talk shows on the main network. It is developing a daytime show, to be aired at 11 a.m., focused on lifestyle and aimed at female viewers. A host should soon be named for the Toronto-produced show.
The Hour, hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos, has been added to the main network at 11 p.m. and will be developed into more of a late-night talk show with a studio audience. It remains on Newsworld at 8 p.m.
Kirstine Layfield, the executive director of network programming at the CBC, said the public broadcaster is expanding its definition of prime time to take in the 7-8 p.m. time-slot and later in the evening.
"We want to make CBC part of Canadians' daily routine again by making sure that when they turn on the TV, CBC will have something that will interest them and challenge them," Layfield said at the launch.
CBC is trying to build the number of viewers across its 24-hour-a-day schedule, she said, and doing that involves creating different kinds of programming.
"Our target is just to do better than we did in past seasons," she said in an interview. "But that is a tall order because the market for conventional TV is shrinking.
"We have to be competitive with U.S. programming in prime time, but there are things we want to nurture so we can build an audience across the 24 hours."
Series on intelligence, criminal cases
The new series are Intelligence, about present-day Canadian criminal and intelligence cases, Canadian-South African production Jozi-H, about an international band of doctors working in a chaotic hospital, and Rumours, a comedy about modern life inside a Toronto women's magazine.
Chris Haddock, the creator of Da Vinci's Inquest, is the writer behind Intelligence and Da Vinci star Ian Tracey plays a gangster who agrees to turn informant.
A reality show called The Canadian One will not be able to escape comparison to the popular Canadian Idol. Based on The One, a star-search program that has done well in Denmark and Britain, The Canadian One will be a search for the country's greatest unsigned musical talent.
Once the talent are selected through auditions, they must live and train together as well as perform on stage. In Quebec, a French-language version of the concept called Star Academy has been a hit.
Other reality-based shows:
- Test the Nation: National IQ Test: a live quiz show that tests participants' analytical skills.
- Underdogs: Wendy Mesley is to host a five-part series about consumers fighting back against business.
- Dragon's Den: will ask entrepreneurs to negotiate the world of business financing.
"We wanted to develop programs that families could watch together in prime time," said Julie Bristow, the executive director of factual entertainment programming at the CBC.
National IQ Test, based on a quiz show that has a following in 25 countries, is the kind of program that is cross-generational as it would engage both parents and children, she said in an interview.
Britain's Dr. Who and Coronation Street are back for another season, along with comedy offerings such as The Rick Mercer Report, Just for Laughs, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce.
Rick Mercer and This Hour are grouped together on Tuesday night, while This Hour is again featured Friday night with a comedy lineup that will include Air Farce and either Just for Laughs or Rick Mercer.
The CBC will bring back the forensic docudrama 72 Hours, featuring Canadian true-crime stories.
A 10-hour series called Hockey: A People's History, produced in-house, will trace the history of hockey in Canada. It is scheduled for Sunday prime time and filmed in high definition.
The new season also includes:
- The miniseries Dragon Boys, a thriller about Asian organized crime on the West Coast that was bumped out of this season by delays in the schedule.
- October, 1970, an eight-hour hostage drama about the October crisis.
- Everest '82, about the first Canadians to climb the world's highest mountain.
Layfield said shorter dramatic series, such as October, 1970, give CBC a chance to offer fresh programming mid-season. Opening Night will return to the air mid-season, after the mini-series ends. Dragon's Den is starting in the fall, followed by Underdogs mid-season.
The fall lineup features a Thursday night slot devoted to documentaries. Among the productions:
- The Great War: a four-hour documentary that marks the 90th anniversary of the First World War and talks to the descendants of Canadian soldiers.
- The Secret History of 9/11: a minute-by-minute account of the al-Qaeda attacks on New York's World Trade Center and other targets on Sept. 11, 2001, directed by CBC correspondent Terence McKenna.
- Arctic Rush: which looks at how the Arctic ice cap will melt over the next decade.
- Greatest Canadian Inventions: about 50 Canadian inventions the public can't live without.
- 9/11: Toxic Legacy: about the environmental fallout of 9/11.
Newsworld has added a new documentary program, The Big Picture, hosted by Avi Lewis.
In sports, the CBC will have the CFL season (including the 94th Grey Cup from Winnipeg), the 2007 Canada Winter Games, Championship Curling and Hockey Night in Canada.
In children's programming, which makes up a large chunk of the weekday schedule, new shows include:
- Curious George, about the mischievous monkey.
- Wilbur, with a barnyard full of animal friends.
- A new half-hour Mr. Meaty puppet series.
- Secret Life of Og, based on the classic children's book by Pierre Berton.
CBS Tweaks 'Big Brother' Schedule
Recognizing that few people watch TV on Saturdays -- and hoping to train audiences for its fall schedule -- CBS is making a change to its scheduling of "Big Brother" this summer.
The network has opted to move the weekend episode of "Big Brother" to Sunday night, breaking with the show's long-standing Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday schedule. CBS has also shuffled around some of its other shows for the summer, adding a second encore of "How I Met Your Mother" on Monday nights next month and sending repeats of "NCIS" and "The Unit" to Fridays starting July 7.
The latter move will make room for the Tuesday episodes of "Big Brother," which is mounting an all-star edition this year, and "Rock Star," which debuts Wednesday, July 5 with a 90-minute episode. Both dramas will return to Tuesdays in the fall.
Moving "Big Brother: All-Stars" to Sunday also lets CBS set up its scheduling pattern for the coming season, which will feature a reality show ("The Amazing Race") in the 8 p.m. ET timeslot, followed by "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace." Reruns of the two crime dramas will air in their new timeslots starting July 16.
The change should also help the ratings for "Big Brother," as more people watch TV on a typical Sunday than do on Saturday.
As for "How I Met Your Mother," it will air at both 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. Mondays starting July 10.
Barenaked Ladies Enjoy 'Easy' Living
After three years out of the limelight, Barenaked Ladies will on Sept. 12 release their first non-holiday studio album since splitting with longtime label Reprise. "Barenaked Ladies Are Me" will hit stores via the band's own Desperation Records imprint. First single "Easy" will be delivered July 17 to U.S. radio outlets.
The follow-up to 2003's "Everything to Everyone" was self-produced by the band with aid from producer/engineer Susan Rogers. On street date, it will available in several other incarnations besides a standard 13-track audio CD, including a digital version with two bonus tracks and a 27-song "deluxe edition" featuring two dozen non-album cuts from the album sessions. The latter release will also be sold on a USB flash memory stick.
Beginning Aug. 12, fans can pre-order another version of the "deluxe edition" that boasts 29 tracks exclusively via Apple's iTunes Music Store.
As reported yesterday, BNL is making the multi-track studio recordings for "Easy" and four other new songs available for fans to remix. The five best submissions to the band's Web site will be featured on an upcoming EP, with proceeds earmarked for charity.
The group will support "Barenaked Ladies Are Me" with a fall tour and will also anchor its Ships and Dip cruise, which sets sail Jan. 15 from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Tom Petty Heads Down New 'Highway'
Tom Petty has settled on the track list for "Highway Companion," his first solo album since 1994's Rick Rubin-produced "Wildflowers." Fittingly, the set is due July 25 on Rubin's American Recordings imprint via Warner Bros.
First single "Saving Grace" can be streamed from Petty's Web site and will be available July 4 via digital download retailers.
"It's just really a nice collection of songs," Petty told Billboard earlier this year of the album, produced by longtime collaborator Jeff Lynne. "I think it does have an underlying theme of time and what it does to you."
Petty played most of the instruments on "Highway Companion," although Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell handled the lead guitar parts and Lynne chipped in on keyboards, bass and backing vocals.
Petty and the Heartbreakers just launched a summer tour and will perform tomorrow (June 16) at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. Additional dates are expected to be announced in the coming days.
Here is the track list for "Highway Companion:
"Saving Grace"
"Square One"
"Flirting With Time"
"Down South"
"Jack"
"Turn This Car Around"
"Big Weekend"
"Night Driver"
"Damaged by Love"
"This Old Town"
"Ankle Deep"
"The Golden Rose"
Newman prepares to wind down film career
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Paul Newman is considering his final scene. "I will probably have one film left in me," the 81-year-old actor told The Associated Press on Thursday. "The last hurrah."
Newman's latest role is playing a cantankerous 1951 Hudson Hornet in Pixar's new animated film, "Cars."
His film career stretches back to the 1950s and includes "The Sting," "Cool Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
"It's time. When it's time to get out, it's time to get out," Newman said.
Newman said he had a project in mind, but would not provide further details.
He was visiting this upstate resort town as part of a fundraising campaign for the Double H Ranch, an Adirondack camp he co-founded for children with cancer, AIDS and other illnesses.
The camp is one of eight affiliated with the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut, the first camp Newman created for gravely ill children.
"When we started the camp we had no idea of the profound impact these camps would have on these kids," Newman said at a news conference.
The Double H Ranch, co-founded by Newman and the late amusement park developer Charles Wood in 1992, is raising money for a $15 million fund. Camp operators say the fund will help them provide services to the roughly 1,000 summer campers and 500 skiers visiting annually.