Very Bad News in Canadian TV Drama

[dewline]

I just saw the Globe and Mail Arts news today. Hardcopy edition, of course.

If you're a fan of This is Wonderland or Da Vinci's City Hall, you'll be just as minded to have a "WTH!??!" reaction as I to the word: both series are cancelled.

Quoth Ruth-Ellen Soles, CBC spokesbeing: "These are...programs that CBC believed in and attached significant resources to... Unfortunately the audiences for all three have been in steady decline and did not resonate with Canadians. These decisions are always difficult but they had to be made."

I question the perception on the audience decline and the "resonation" angle as well. Especially since I've been watching both series regularly, and speak regularly with others who have the same habits.

And "question" is a polite choice of verb on my part. I don't yet know how to help remedy that error in perception on CBC's part, but this blog entry's going to be where I start.

Comments

"This Is Wonderland" and "DaVinci's City Hall"

[(Anonymous)]

I don't care about being anonymous. This is my first time here. I keep hoping that some TV network will realize that TV is now fragmented to the point it is just like the magazine business. Understanding that could lead a network to pursue what I would consider a more sophisticated audience with less stupefyingly idiotic programming. Is that snobbish? Tough. If I were the CBC, I'd ask myself whether, after I've lost the audience that thinks Wonderland and DaVinci are the only dramas on TV worth watching, will I be able to gain ground in the race to the bottom of public taste led by FOX? The same people who were the foundation of the CBC radio audience in the days of Gzowski, are the audience CBC TV is throwing away with this decision. I also find Wonderland and DaVinci much more like reality than any of the so-called reality shows, none of which I've ever been able to watch for an entire episode. Demographics may be part of the problem. As the boomer bulge passes through, the younger audience gradually maturing to CBC may shrink for awhile. I don't think the solution is to pursue the leaders in the shrinking total audience. CBC doesn't always have the big audience but it has the audience who make things happen in the country. CBC listeners valued Tommy Douglas more highly than Don Cherry. CBC should not abandon them. I am David Cadogan of Miramichi, New Brunswick. My email address is cadogan@nbnet.nb.ca.

Re: "This Is Wonderland" and "DaVinci's City Hall"

[dewline.livejournal.com]

David, welcome to the party, such as it is here on the DEWLine!

I absolutely agree that CBC's worth the trouble and expense in a lot of ways, some of which you've covered in detail in your posting. I hope that we can get something useful done about the two series I'm paying most direct attention to right now, as I figure they're good starting points for reviving the dramatic programming arm of the Corporation.

I also suggest checking out canadiantv and PublicBroadcasting.ca (http://publicbroadcasting.ca/) to find other people who think as we do.