If you haven’t got a set for yourself or are thinking of giving it as a gift then you might want to check out Amazon.COM  for a 50%+ sale on the first two seasons of Murdoch Mysteries.  The fourth season is already available in the UK and will come to Citytv on 7 June, pending any more reschedulings by the broadcaster.

The author of Murdoch Mysteries has a new show coming to television. Bomb Girls was announced back in April and will be seen on one of the Shaw channels this autumn.  It is just a guess but look for Bomb Girls on Showcase.

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Yesterday Brian Cormier of the Huffington Post’s Canadian version wrote the article “Canadian TV Networks Missing the Boat on Reality Television“. He argues that it is cheap, popular, and an easy money-maker. It is relatively inexpensive compared to American scripted programming but Canadian scripted programming doesn’t cost $3M per episode. The first point fails. It is popular among some, mostly the kids to whom the American television industry panders to while receiving scoffing in return. Other than The Amazing Race, Big Brother, Surivior and American Idol reality tv isn’t that popular in Canada. If you want to sample it there are the top 30 shows each week from September 2003 through current data to see just how not popular reality shows are in Canada. Shaw realised that reality competition shows are more of a niche than mainstream in Canada and accordingly premièred Wipeout Canada on TVTropolis and created Global Reality Channel rather than dump such shows on those who want nothing of them. Brian Cormier complains that Canada’s Next Top Model has been relegated to an obscure cable channel. Hello! That would be because not enough people were wanting to watch the crap show with Jay and his highlights. He says that the move to obscurity may be seen as good by some but that he disagrees. Hello!!!! If people won’t watch a show why the fuck should it be on the main broadcast network just because you want it to be so? Why should the majority be subjected to that which they don’t want to watch just because you like it and think there is a market for it. That sounds eerily the same as how the USA television industry functions and look around at just how many of those viewers are forever complaining about how it works and the crap they are subjected to. You can find it anywhere there is mention of reality television. The Canadian market was tested. Canadian Idol was cancelled after 6 seasons for cause. CNTM is on cable because only a few people watch it and those that do fit the demographic of the channel it is on. Canadians grew out of the obsession with reality shit long before American networks ever will.

Brian Cormier calls it a shame that Canadian broadcasters have not stepped up to the plate on the reality tv phenomenon. Brian, i think it a shame that you think it a shame and that as a Canadian television critic you are advocating for more mindless shit to take the place of what precious and once again well-crafted Canadian programming there is. You might as well be calling for the cancellation of Flashpoint, Hiccups, rookie blue, ENDGAME, king, The Borgias, Haven, Republic Of Doyle, Call Me Fitz, The Listener, XIII, Lost Girl, Being Human, and all of the other Canadian shows. Most of those shows do better than Canadian programming used to. This is possibly a new ‘golden era’ of Canadian dramatic programming and you are essentially calling for its mass cancellation to get in more reality crap.

Sure a lot of young people auditioned for the last Canadian Idol in early 2008. You are correct that the ratings dipped. But it was more than a little bit. More like a free-fall. People en mass abandoned the programme. Until writing this i didn’t even know there was a 6th season; i thought the show ended with 5 seasons. A schedule change would not help, unless you were to move Canadian Idol to some obscure cable channel to keep Canada’s Next Top Model company.

I do agree that Dragon’s Den is as good as ABC’s Shark Tank. Where we differ is in thinking that Shark Tank is a good show.

If reality television is here to stay, don’t Canadian networks have a duty and an obligation to get us more involved in caring and rooting for other talented (or at least entertaining) Canadians instead of just watching Canadian commercials during American shows?

If reality television is here to stay, let it be imported American programming. It is not a duty, obligation, or CanCon requirement that there be unwanted domestic reality shit to compete with the precious small portion of CanCon that is allotted time on the schedule. Most CanCon drama on broadcast networks is already shuffled over to summer. You are advocating for more CanCon reality at the direct expense of CanCon scripted.  I will never support this and hopefully noöne else will either. Your beloved Wipeout Canada is actually made in Argentina.

The only way that your demands would be anywhere close to agreeable to this fan of Canadian drama (and some comedies) would be if there was an absolute prohibition on all imported programming on all channels. Everything would be absolutely 100% CanCon on broadcast and cable. The broadcasters would voluntarily shut down operations before they would ever abide by such a rule assuming the CRTC would be so bold as to take such a stance.

As a post script disclaimer i am enjoying the first season of The Amazing Race Australia but i gave up on the American version with its 8th season (ie 10 seasons ago).