Game Over For the CBC?

Back in the fall of 2005, we published a rant about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In the intro to that rant several Canadian traditions were listed, traditions such as passion for hockey, obsession with weather, and vexation with the CBC. And if the title to this article didn't give it again, we are once again back on the subject of Canada's national public broadcaster. Keep in mind that as strange as our customs may seem to outsiders, for people in the know there is often a logical reason behind tradition.

As mentioned in the previous rant, the reasons we Canadians complain about the CBC are abundant. But as much as we complain, we keep it around, content to spend the billion or so annual taxpayer dollars it takes to keep it afloat. After all, as much as there is to dislike about the CBC, it does provide us with local news and, come playoff time, the best hockey coverage public money can buy. But the time has come for things to change. And as much as I have appreciated it over the years, the CBC as we have known it must die.

Now, there are lots of people out there who are critical of the the CBC and think we should drag it out back behind the barn and beat it to death with a shovel. I'm not suggesting that, not at all. I'm suggesting we stop giving the CBC truckloads of money because as long as the money keeps flowing there doesn't seem to be much incentive for them to produce TV shows which don't suck.

I came to this realization shortly after watching the premiere episode of the new CBC-TV comedy Little Mosque on the Prarie. For those of you outside of Canada, no, I'm not kidding, we really do have a show called Little Mosque on the Prarie. For everyone in Canada, unless you've been in a coma for the last month, or you've thoroughly avoided the CBC in all its many radio, TV, and web precences you already know about LMotP. The level of promotion that has been undertaken on behalf of this show is nothing less than epic. The number of times I heard it mentioned on CBC radio, saw the host of promo clips sandwiched into commercial breaks, or witnessed it shilled on Hockey Night in Canada I can't begin to count. About the only thing I didn't see was a personal message from CBC prez Robert Rabinovitch imploring me to watch the show.

Turns out he didn't have to bother, I ended up tuning in anyway, fully expecting to witness a trainwreck. I wasn't disappointed. Little Mosque on the Prarie is trite, cliched, and pretty much every character (and the cast includes a number of recognizable Canadian actors) is a shallow stereotype. What's more, the plot was disjointed and almost felt like a string of loosely related sketch comedy skits. All those faults could be forgiven, though, if only the show was funny. There might have been a handful of chuckles scattered thorough the laughtrack-free half hour episode, but not a single good, solid laugh. The second episode was slightly better, but still only marginally watchable. It also drew only about half as many viewers as the first episode — just over a million, which is actually pretty good for a Canadian sitcom. We'll see how many tune in next week.

Ultimately, it's hard to say how many non-Muslims will watch this show on a regular basis. There already is a Canadian show about small town life on the Praries — Corner Gas, which is a much better show to start with. One might even say that Little Mosque is an Islamified Corner Gas, which isn't entirely inaccurate.

That reveals a larger problem at the CBC, however: a lack of originality. The CBC has been rolling out a lot of copycat shows lately, some better than others. Last fall saw Dragon's Den, adapted from a UK show of the same name, which was excellent and received lots of buzz. Last summer saw The One, billed as American Idol meets The Real World, which the CBC promoted even more than Little Mosque, but to no avail, as it apparently was terrible enough to be cancelled after three episodes.

The unoriginality hardly stops there. In the late fall CBC rolled out a new daytime talk show, The Gill Deacon Show. It has all the usual trappings one would expect from a Canadian daytime talk show, such as a quirky host and guests that aren't even vaguely celebrities. As daytime talk shows go, it's actually not too bad. The biggest problem lies with the fact that if you miss it at 11 am, you can catch it at 2 pm. Five days a week. But wait, there's more — if you happen to be awake and bored at 5 am, you can watch Gill Deacon then too! That's 15 hours every week decidated to a single show. That's almost as much airtime as all the new programming on the network combined, and certainly more than hockey (except during the playoffs, of course).

One might argue that at least the CBC is trying. And while they might well be, that doesn't make the shows necessarily any better. As long as the network has a billion dollar safety blanket, I have doubts that we'll see much in the way of better programming. And with the NHL contract due to expire in a year or two, and CTV/TSN rumoured to be eager to bid big bucks for hockey rights, the CBC's single biggest cash cow might be off to the abbatoir. I hope I'm wrong, but if things don't change, and soon, I forsee very bad times ahead for the CBC.