2008 CBC Fall TV Launch

Alex Trebek, Fred Forster, David Suzuki, Rick Mercer, George Stroumboulopoulos and the Stanley Cup…

‘Who were some of the Canadian stars rolled out at CBC’s 2008 Fall Upfront?’

You are correct!

This past Monday,  CBC hosted it’s annual up-front presentation in the ‘Corporation’s’ Atrium on Front Street.  Before herding the media folk in a giant freight elevator up to the 10th floor, they took us through their upcoming Fall season.

The new CBC schedule is full of returnees that were launched in the past couple years, which is a good sign of success for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp…the list includes The Border, Sophie, Little Mosque on The Prairie, Heartland, The Tudors, Dragon’s Den, Test The Nation, Hockey Night in Canada and the daytime hit-show Steven & Chris.

Besides these returnees, the CBC line-up also features a number of long-established shows…The Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, The Fifth Estate, the final season of Royal Air Farce Live and we must not forget The Hour with George "Let’s sit and chat" Stroumboulopoulos…say that last name 10 times real fast!

CBC also announced a couple of new mini-series: Everest, shot in the Rockies, starring Jason Priestley (Beverly Hills 90210) and William Shatner (Star Trek, Boston Legal).  Everest tells the story of the first Canadians to reach the highest point of the earth in 1982.  Celine, is a biopic about Celine Dion and her humble beginnings in Quebec through to her climb to international stardom.

After beginning his broadcasting career with CBC back in the late 1950’s, Alex Trebek, a native of Sudbury Ontario is back with his hit show Jeopardy!  CBC will be running Jeopardy! in the same time slot it held on CTV.  Another acquisition is Wheel of Fortune which will air weekdays at 5:30pm…Unfortunately, there were no Vanna White sightings.

It was also announced that the CBC is coming off a year in which they beat out CanWest Global’s ratings this winter for the first time since 1995.  We think the Writer’s Strike may have had a little hand in that event.

Once on the 10th Floor, guests had a chance to peruse the different mock studio sets and have their pictures taken with the likes of Trebek, Sofia Milos (The Border, CSI Miami), Stroumboulopoulos, Mercer and Suzuki to name a few.  Interestingly, one of the longest lineups was for a photo op with George Stroumboulopoulos, it wasn’t so much his popularity, as George took a few minutes to sit and get to know each person he took a picture with.  The Grilled Cheese station seemed to be the most popular of the food kiosks as was the Orange Creme Brulee that was trotted around throughout the night. 

There was however an extremely long wait and a very large, anxious crowd searching for their coveted developed pictures with the stars.  Overall, one of the more intriguing CBC Upfront’s I’ve attended in quite some time.

‘I’ll take PHD Canada for $1,000 Alex!’

Now onto the next Fall upfront…