You Want To Blame Someone - Blame Me

Because I have to admit that I don't watch any these programs and with the exception of two or three haven't even heard of them. But this is also true of much of the garbage that I get from my cable provider. I guess the big difference is that my tax dollars don't go to support the off shore garbage.

CBC cancels long-running shows
Hallmark shows Country Canada, Venture and Opening Night among casualties as the people's network turns to reality programming, sitcoms and Elizabethans
April 05, 2007
Jim Bawden
Television Columnist

CBC's sneak preview of its fall television season announced yesterday is more notable for what's not coming back, including its last cultural showcase, Opening Night.

Gone after 22 years on the air is Venture, and Country Canada is finished after a record 52 seasons.Other cancellations include 72 Hours; the hospital series filmed in South Africa, Jozi-H; the series about the disabled, Moving On; and the comedy Hatching, Matching And Dispatching with Mary Walsh (it was off air being retinkered).

In addition, CBC is still discussing the future of the Vancouver series Intelligence with producer Chris Haddock. Additional episodes of the comedy Rumours will be run off this summer and no new ones are being ordered.

After seven seasons of providing ballet, classical music and opera to Canadians, the demise of the low-rated but award-winning Opening Night marks the end of an era of regularly scheduled cultural series.

Presenting Canadian culture to Canadians has been a CBC hallmark since its inception.

"If this isn't what the CBC mandate is all about, then what is?" said executive producer Robert Sherrin, known for decades of carefully crafted TV movies (Must Be Santa, Nothing Sacred) and high-class arts programming. "A few specials can't compensate viewers for what they'll be missing.

"It's truly sad," he said. "We were cancelled because of our small ratings, it wasn't a money matter at all. We have the most enthusiastic audience of any CBC show, but ratings-wise we can't compete."

Termination notices went out this morning to the five remaining CBC employees in the Opening Night unit in Toronto as well as 41 other CBC employees across the country, including five in the Country Canada unit in Winnipeg.

CBC shows picked up for the fall include the hit sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie. But the network's commitment to reality programming is continuing, with Test The Nation, Canada's Next Great Prime Minister and The Greatest Canadian Invention returning.

It has also picked up Dragons' Den, a reality show where entrepreneurs pitch their inventions to captains of industry, and No Opportunity Wasted, a reality series that lets participants seize a life-changing opportunity (from Amazing Race producer Phil Keoghan).

New series include the co-production The Tudors; a Toronto security drama series, The Border; and a show set in Alberta called Heartland and Sophie, about a single mom who inherits her dad's talent agency.

The Tudors, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII, is already screening in the U.S. where it marked Showtime's highest series premiere in three years Sunday night. Nearly 1.3 million viewers hailed the 10 p.m. debut and an encore viewing at 11 p.m.

Opening Night's Sherrin is currently shooting an all-new Nutcracker movie in Calgary to run at Christmas. "It's about the last cultural show I can see on CBC," he said.

Other Opening Night employees mentioned letters from rural viewers who said they'd never be able to see a live opera or ballet. Some employees recall the previous arts show, Adrienne Clarkson Presents, and think Opening Night might have benefited from a permanent host.

One says that tonight's final episode is one of the year's best, a salute to Mozart that blends music and documentary.

Les Violons du Roy, conducted by Bernard Labadie, perform Mozart's Requiem. Starring are soloists John Fanning, Colin Balzer, Helene Guilmette and Michele Losier. It's on CBC at 9. For the very last time.