BBC shows
Not so Confident(ial)
Friday, 30 September 2011 | Author Jessica
BBC three controller Zai Bennett has decided to make enemies of a huge chunk of the British population and with sci-fi fans from all over the world. It was announced on 28 September that Zai Bennett has cancelled Doctor Who Confidential.
If you live other than in the UK you had to download it but if you knew of it and loved Doctor Who you probably picked up Doctor Who Confidential each week for a look behind the scenes at the making of the episode. They are often fun, informative, and just really interesting. Considering it is often just documenting things about the episode from the point of view of one of the cast members with maybe some interview with a crew member or two and then the editing it is hardly something you would think to be an expensive programme to make. But Zai Bennett’s reason for cancelling the programme is money.
The programme finale of Doctor Who Confidential will be transmitted on BBC three tomorrow at 20.35.
13/13. Alex Kingston looks back through her timeline with The Doctor as River Song.
Confidential takes a front pew at the wedding of the year. Alex Kingston gets back into character as River Song and takes us on a personal journey through her timeline with The Doctor.
Featuring the premiere of Death is the Only Answer – a three-minute Doctor Who episode written by a group of schoolchildren.
Plus exclusive backstage access to the final scenes provide a chance to take a look back at some of the highlights of the series.
Featuring interviews with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Steven Moffat.
Doesn’t sound like an expensive programme does it? If you have missed any of Doctor Who Confidential you can download it from the forum. I even have the dvd-only Christmas episode from 2005.
This news does make one wonder, what ever happened to Torchwood Declassified? And no, this does not mean that Doctor Who has been cancelled.
Miracle numbers for Torchwood outside of US
Wednesday, 10 August 2011 | Author Jessica
There has been a lot of fuss about Torchwood since the creator of the series decided he belongs in the glam of Los Angeles instead of London or Cardiff. Plot, casting, scheduling, frame rate, broadcasting, viewership ratings, and even editing of the episodes.
The word from the producers is that there are only a couple of minor edits between the American and the British version of the episodes that affect only a couple of the episodes. Fans who have copies of the broadcasts from each country have found more edits. No word on what version is being shown in Canada.
Here is a nice table with the numbers. For the USA Torchwood is seen Friday nights on a premium cable channel which has the new episode at 10pm and a repeat immediately afterward; the viewership is for the combined 2 hours each week. In Canada Torchwood is seen Saturday nights on a basic cable channel which is available to most of the country only in SD but is available in HD with a single service provider. In the UK Torchwood is on BBC One on Thursday nights.
| Episode | USA | Canada | UK | ||||||
| 1 – The New World | 8 July | 1510000 | 9 July | 432000 | 14 July | 6590000 | |||
| 2 – Rendition | 15 July | 976000 | 16 July | 421000 | 21July | 5750000 | |||
| 3 – Dead of Night | 22 July | 1018000 | 23 July | 377000 | 28 July | 5490000 | |||
| 4 – Escape to L.A. | 29 July | 940000 | 30 July | 420000 | 4 August | 5190000 | |||
| 5 - The Categories of Life | 5 August | 1024000 | 6 August | 428000 | 11 August | 5170000 | |||
| 6 – The Middle Men | 12 August | 880000 | 13 August | 275000 | 18 August | 4600000 | |||
| 7 – Immortal Sins | 19 August | 920000 | 20 August | n/a | 25 August | 4480000 | |||
| 8 – End of the Road | 26 August | 1170000 | 27 August | 528000 | 1 September | 4640000 | |||
| 9 – The Gathering | 2 September | 105000 | 3 September | 421000 | 8 September | 4630000 | |||
| 10 – The Blood Line | 9 September | 950000 | 10 September | 406000 | 15 September | 5130000 | |||
So what do the numbers say? People are not subscribing to starz so that they can watch Torchwood. People in the USA are relatively not watching Torchwood. If you were to compare the numbers based on population it varies between three and four times as many people in Canada watch the new episode each week. About 10 times as many people watch Torchwood in the UK on a per capita basis than do in Canada. About 1/11 of the UK watches the show while about 1/100 of Canada watches the show. A staggeringly pathetic 1/310 Americans watches the show this season. So the big question not being asked is why the hell did the BBC insist upon keeping ties with the creator when the creator buggered off to the sun and glory of Cali? Noone there watches his show. Even disregarding the per capita the UK still has about 6 times the viewership to that of the USA. BBC should have cut all ties with Russell T Davies and kept Torchwood in Cardiff.
UPDATE : 24 December – Happy Christmas. The view numbers are now all filled in. That nice spike for episode 8 in Canada comes courtesy of its lead-in, the Doctor Who episode “Let’s Kill Hitler”, which had 834000 viewers. For SPACE that is gifuckingnormous. The US numbers for eps 8 and 9 come from Wikipedia but i can’t trace them to an actual source. Could they be too good to be true? Well, they are the only episodes there to break the 1 million mark.
The Kennedys rise again – Emmy beckons
Thursday, 14 July 2011 | Author Jessica
The Emmy nominations for 2011 have been announced. It is a nice if not somewhat obvious selection. The shows are listed alphabetically with domestic and American broadcasters in parenthesis. If you look closely you will notice quite a few are Canadian shows.
Muse Entertainment Enterprises of Montreal, makers of Being Human and Durham County, picked up a combined 17 nominations for The Kennedys and The Pillars Of The Earth.
There’s been a lot of very, very negative comment about the show that has come from people who had an axe to grind, as far as I’m concerned. Getting these nominations is a tremendous vindication.
We are overwhelmingly proud to be honoured with multiple nominations for the The Kennedys which we produced, and for The Pillars of the Earth, which we co-produced, in the past year. These nominations establish that our peers look at these productions as among the best in the world.
Michael Prupas, owner of Muse and executive producer of The Kennedys
If you are in Canada you can catch a repeat of The Kennedys on Monday nights this summer on Global. If you want to read Shaw’s press release about the Emmy nominations you can find it here.
The most nominations went to HBO’s mini-series Mildred Pierce, the story of a woman struggling to raise her family during the depression of the 1930s. Next to the 21 for Mildred Pierce is 19 for AMC’s Mad Men, 18 for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, and 17 for ABC’s Modern Family. Downton Abbey with 11 was the most nominated foreign production, besting Muse’s The Kennedys by one nomination. American Idol, the top nominated reality show, tied The Kennedys at 10, one ahead of So You Think You Can Dance.
The following are the nominees among the shows found here.
Posted in BBC shows, CTV shows, E1 shows, HBO shows, Muse shows, Take 5 shows, mini-series | 
Tags: Being Human, Boardwalk Empire, Camelot, Degrassi, Downton Abbey, Emmy Awards, Friday Night Lights, Game Of Thrones, Gettysburg, Hot In Cleveland, Luther, Mad Men, Men Of A Certain Age, Mildred Pierce, Sherlock, SouthLAnd, The Borgias, The Closer, The Kennedys, The Pillars Of The Earth, The Walking Dead, Too Big To Fail | No Comments »
The Immortal Captain Jack Is Back!
Monday, 4 July 2011 | Author Jessica
The Immortal Captain Is Back!
SPACE Announces the Premiere of Sci-Fi Thriller
TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY
8 July in USA
9 July in Canada
14 July in UK
As you might guess from the graphic or header text above the series 4 premiere date is not unified in the major markets. Canada is one day later. For some reason only Jack knows. But Doctor Who did quite well on Saturdays so why not put Torchwood on then too. SPACE did get the scoop on BBC America by having Doctor Who on one hour earlier so i guess this time they have to lag behind starz’ broadcast of Torchwood. Friday in ROW, Saturday in Canada.
Toronto, ON (June 17, 2011) – Captain Jack Harkness returns exclusively to SPACE (in Canada) for the fourth series of fan favourite Torchwood, premiering Saturday, July 9 at 9 p.m. ET. Starring John Barrowman as the immortal Captain Jack, the previous instalment, Torchwood: Children Of Earth, garnered a dedicated fan audience and scored impressive numbers on SPACE, with more than one million viewers tuning in over its five-day run.*
The first episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, “The New World”, begins with a day when nobody dies. When death itself comes to a halt, the whole word faces its greatest danger yet. CIA agent Rex Matheson has only one clue – the name “Torchwood”. Alongside Barrowman, Torchwood: Miracle Day stars Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper) and newcomers Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), and Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes). Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner return as executive producers.
In addition to Torchwood: Miracle Day, viewers can tune in to SPACE all Summer long for a schedule full of exciting programming. Highlights include Season 2 of The Listener, premiering Monday, June 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, and all-new series Alphas and Fanboy Confessional, debuting on Monday, July 11 at 10 p.m. ET/PT and Wednesday, July 13 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, respectively.
SPACE is Canada’s national science fiction, horror and fantasy channel. SPACE is truly the boutique station for all those who dare to challenge their imagination. SPACE is a division of Bell Media, which is owned by BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), Canada’s largest communications company. For more information about SPACE, visit spacecast.com.
*Source: BBM Canada, P2+, Audiences prior to August 31, 2009 based on Mark II data.
Posted in BBC shows | Tags: BBC, press release, season première, SPACE, starz, Torchwood | 1 Comment »
Wills & Kate : By The Numbers in Canada
Saturday, 7 May 2011 | Author Jessica
First off, only the CTV coverage ranked in the weekly top 30. Global had their own coverage and CBC mostly piggy-backed on the Beeb’s feed.
| Rank | Title | Network | Day | Time | Millions of viewers |
| 17 | ROYAL WEDDING | CTV Total | ….F.. | 6:00 7:15 | 1.534 |
| 12 | ROYAL WEDDING PROCSN | CTV Total | ….F.. | 7:15 8:30 | 1.704 |
| 25 | ROYAL WEDDING PRIME | CTV Total | ….F.. | 19:00 21:00 | 1.226 |
| - | Royal Wedding | CBC Total | ….F.. | 5:00 10:00 | 1.032 |
| - | Wills & Kate | Global Total | ….F.. | 4:00 10:00 | 0.370 |
| - | Royal Wedding | CBC NN | ….F.. | 5:00 10:00 | 0.401 |
| - | Royal Wedding | CNN | ….F.. | 4:00 10:00 | 0.204 |
| - | Royal Wedding | CTV NC | ….F.. | 7:15 8:30 | 0.130 |
| - | Royal Wedding | SunTV | ….F.. | 6:00 8:00 | 0.015 |
| - | Royal Wedding | SunTV | ….F.. | 8:00 11:00 | 0.013 |
So 2 billion people were expected to watch the wedding of Wills & Kate. I read somewhere from someone that most of the viewers were expected to come from India. Somewhere about 6 million Canadians watched via the major tv channels. CTV, BBC, and PBS and who-knows-whom-else had their own streams on the internet. It is an early, generous prediction but it is not impossible that a little less than one third of the population watched the wedding via some medium.
Thanks to Bill Brioux and his wonderful site tvfeedsmyfamily.blogspot.com for the non-ranking info. If you want to know how a show performed in Canada and it didn’t make the top 30 Bill probably has it. Also check out Bill’s column on the Toronto Star’s new entertainment site toronto.com
Posted in BBC shows, CBC shows, CTV shows, Shaw Media shows | Tags: British, ratings, Wills & Kate | No Comments »
