What's the deal with tickets to that Canadian Deal Or No Deal?
Global announced plans to shoot five all-Canadian episodes of the hit game show in Toronto. But where exactly will it be taped and how can fans become a contestant or get tickets to the tapings?
An announcement from Global giving details to all of this is expected early next week. In the meantime, check globaltv.com for any heads up on how to get in front of Howie.
COMEDY STILL KING AT CBC: The word has come down from on high at CBC: No more political satire shows.
Idiots! That's the only thing still working at The Corpse. The CBC's three long-running political satires, The Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Royal Canadian Air Farce, all consistently draw between 600,000 and 700,000 every week, with Mercer topping off at 686,000 last Tuesday. Even in repeats (Fridays at 8:30 after Air Farce), Mercer still pulled an impressive 582,000 last week.
New drama Intelligence (341,000 last week) would kill for that number. As would new hospital drama Jozi H (233,000) or shunned McNewscast The Hour, which drew a tragic 69,000 viewers Sunday night despite special guests The Tragically Hip.
As for Booky Makes Her Mark, she didn't make much of one Sunday. Just 327,000 tuned in to the Megan Follows family drama. How much do you want to bet it doesn't go to series?
'Course, that's a hit compared to October 1970, which actually went down from 110,000 to 105,000 in its second week. How does a national network go down from 110,000?
Instead of closing the door to more political satire, CBC should be running them six nights a week. If this were a real country with real money, Mercer would run as often as The Daily Show. Where else are you going to see Bob Rae skinny dipping? Or the host having a sleepover at the prime minister's house, as happens on next Tuesday's show?
PARTY ON, GARTH: Maybe this will help. Canadian impresario Garth Drabinsky just announced plans to partner up with CBC on a new reality show. Triple Sensation will showcase young Canadians who can sing, dance and act. A panel of experts, including Drabinsky, Cynthia Dale and Marvin Hamlish, will judge the talent.
If Triple Sensations sounds a little too much like The One, Canadian Idol, America's Got Talent or any of a dozen other star search shows, Drabinsky says wait and see. "This will not be an exercise in karaoke," he said in a statement.
It also won't involve a trip to Broadway. An article in yesterday's New York Times pointed out that Drabinsky is still a fugitive from American justice after failing to appear in a New York court in 1999. If he steps across the border, he could be arrested.
The charges relate to the bankruptcy of his company, Livent. A trial for fraud is still pending in Canada.
LUKAS ROCKS GEMINIS: The Gemini Awards, the Canadian TV salute nobody watches, just added Rock Star: Supernova winner Lukas Rossi to their lineup. The Toronto native and guitarist Gilby Clarke will perform with the Rock Star: Supernova band. The show takes place Nov. 4 in Vancouver and airs on Global.
REEGE'S GOT TALENT: Looks like Regis Philbin can keep his day job. The host of Live With Regis & Kelly told critics last July that he was actually thinking of giving up his daytime talk show to concentrate on hosting NBC's America's Got Talent. "I don't mind telling you (hosting the two shows) really took a lot out of me," Philbin, 75, told the Sun last week.
The problem was that Philbin had to fly back and forth between coasts to shoot Live in New York and Talent in Los Angeles.
With Talent originally scheduled to return in January, the prospect of jetting back and forth in the winter gave Philbin the chills.
Now, however, Philbin has been told that NBC plans to wait until next summer to rebroadcast the glitzy Talent series.
