How Do You Solve A Problem Like The CBC? (Or Canadian TV In General)

I've been holding this back but I was reminded of their stupidity again so I just had to say it. (Even though most of the American and worldwide readers (hello! Thanks for stopping by! Love you!) are probably going, huh? What the hell is the CBC? Don't worry, most Canadians don't either, at least not the TV portion unless it's hockey night (though the radio portion is good, think NPR but with "eh" added on)). (And don't worry CBC lovers, I have a bone to pick with Canadian TV in general but I've held back/been too lazy (cause does anybody even really care or want to read about it? but I'm going to rant anyways))

What kind of BONEHEAD at the CBC schedules the premiere of the reality show contest to find the new Maria for the Toronto production of The Sound of Music (at the Princess of Wales Theatre) How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? (based on the British version for the West End production) on Sunday June 15th at 8pm.

Against The Tony Awards? The Musical Theatre Queen's Super Bowl. The SAME AUDIENCE that might actually be interested in How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?.

What kind of BONEHEAD DOES THAT? No wonder the CBC's numbers and relevance keep falling. With that kind of dumbass move, they DESERVE the ratings drop.

You know, I'm actually one that supports the (idea of the) CBC (even though I barely watch our national publicly funded network) and I'm not even sure if numbers SHOULD be their concern sometimes, but seriously, last year they built up Triple Sensation (well, built up as much as CBC can) and then... the series gets burned off in 3 nights just as I was getting into it.

So the CBC meanwhile announced their 2008 fall season (along with CTV and Global), where they picked up Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune (because THAT'S Canadian? What happened to their new self imposed mandate? I guess Alex Trebek counts as Canadian.).

Sophie and Little Mosque on the Prairie return. Both mediocre comedies. I actually watched the entire first season of Sophie (soon to be airing in the States on ABC Family) and kept hoping it would get better and there were definitely moments but it should/could have been better.

The Tudors is back, a co-production CBC is involved with but they air the cut version on their own network which surprises me since about nothing else on Canadian TV seems to be the cut version anymore.

At least The Border is back. It wasn't bad and actually watchable AND smart enough to cast good looking people (ha!). Probably the most "Americanized" shows of all their new shows this past year and the most watchable, yet MVP, the already cancelled show got the pick up from SoapNet (though maybe if they showed pictures like THAT, people might have actually watched when it first aired in Canada. The campaign below isn't bad and is actually quite Americanized glossy but skin might have helped! Actually, ANYTHING might have actually helped MVP. A script might have helped.).

Seriously, the CBC really needs to revamp their marketing/PR department. Even when I WANT to watch something I never know when it's airing.

Anyways, I could go on and on about the problems with CBC but I'm tired.

Do they even show The Nature of Things or Market Place anymore? I know they cancelled one of my faves, Street Cents (in another BONEHEADED move).

Also, what the heck WAS J-Pod about anyways? No wonder it got cancelled too.

They even had a cute David Kopp in the lead for a Douglas Coupland based show, with Alan Thicke (!No joke!) and the always wonderful Sherry Miller (Queer as Folk) and the family scenes were kooky but worked, but that whole bunker office thing was WEIRD.

CTV and Global also announced their fall schedules but like their US counterparts, there wasn't much that was changing this year (Fringe goes to CTV, 90210, Life on Mars, Kath and Kim goes to Global since they have WAY more holes to plug. I'm not even sure when CTV is going to have time to air So You Think You Can Dance Canada in the fall considering they already have a pretty full slate).

At least CTV managed to get Flash Point (the new Canadian show with Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars)) picked up by CBS (though to be relegated to summer Friday nights) and The Listener as a midseason replacement for NBC. It's been over 10 years since anything like that has happened.

The Guard (a TV ripoff of the movie The Guardian with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher) will also be back on Global even though it sucked, but again, at least was smart enough to cast some attractive people.At least you got to give Canadian TV that, they are at least casting better looking people. I know. Shallow. But seriously, it helps a bit with disguising the bad writing. I don't understand how we can be so good with movies but so terrible when it comes to producing TV? Is it a money thing? It's probably a money thing.

Then again, Degrassi: TNG is actually really good and works on a Canadian sized budget. (Although anybody notice that even THEIR cast has started prettying it up in the last few season? I thought this was the show for showing the real pimples on real teenagers? I mean, one of them has even graduated all the way to 90210)