  CBC has high hopes for Little Mosque of the Prarie, with Yasir (Carlo Rota) and his smart, outspoken daughter Rayyan (Sitara Hewitt).
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“What does it all mean?”
CBC executives get asked that question regularly, whereas the folks at CTV, Global and CHUM-CITY don’t hear it nearly as often. That’s what the CBC gets for being a public broadcaster.
But as the CBC formally launched its fall season with a presentation in Toronto yesterday, executive director of network programming Kirstine Layfield said she is not intimidated by the expectation that CBC always needs to display a clear direction.
“I don’t think we’re burdened by it,” said Layfield, whose network will launch nine new shows this fall and seven more next winter. “We’re kind of inspired by it, because in the end, you’re standing for something.
“What is our vision? Above all we are Canadians telling Canadian stories. And that’s not trite, because other networks don’t do it. And if they do, (their Canadian shows) get shuffled around in the mix of U.S. programming. If the U.S. simulcast moves, they move. They’re not the priority.”
While other Canadian networks buy U.S. programming by the bushel, that obviously is not the mandate of the CBC.
“My job is the most interesting job in Canadian television because I get to play with all these different shows,” Layfield said. “I’m not sitting in a room in L.A., trying to choose between the shows that someone else made.”
At the gala yesterday it was easy to see where the CBC is placing its heaviest bets, given the order of presentation. First came a championing of the second season of Little Mosque on the Prairie. And after that, palpable joy and relief were expressed that the CBC is holding onto the NHL on Saturday nights.
“Everyone is going to expect the second year of Little Mosque to be stronger than the first year, and it has to be,” Layfield said. “And now that we have more episodes (a full season, launching in the first week of October), it gives us more time to build a relationship between the audience and the characters.
“Hockey, for morale, and for revenue obviously, it’s more than a game, it’s Hockey Night in Canada. Part of what I’m doing with the rest of the schedule, like going back to family hour on Sunday at 7 p.m., was inspired by the hockey success on CBC. We get a lot of families watching hockey and they weren’t necessarily staying around to watch other things. Now they stay around to watch Rick Mercer or Little Mosque and we’re going to build on that with the rest of our programming.”
CBC also has high hopes for The Tudors, a sexy, 10-episode series based on King Henry VIII which already has appeared on the Showtime network in the U.S. It treads dangerously close to soft porn at times — kind of like the HBO series Rome — and Layfield was asked if she anticipates any complaints when The Tudors begins its autumn run on Tuesdays at 9 p.m., right after The Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
“Sure do,” Layfield said. “You bet. But it’s a great show. There are a lot of provocative parts to it, but that was (Henry VIII’s) life and we’re showing it bare, so to speak.
“There will be people who will find it too racy. We’ll put it in the right spot so it’s not readily available to young children, it will be disclaimed, and if some people don’t like it, there will be other things for them to watch. But I really think people will understand the context.”
Also new on CBC: Phil Keoghan of The Amazing Race hosts a Canadian version of No Opportunity Wasted; Heartland, a family drama set in the Rockies; a mini-series based on Mordecai Richler’s St. Urbain’s Horseman, starring David Julian Hirsh, Elliott Gould and Andrea Martin; and Triple Sensation, a talent show from Garth Drabinsky.
In addition, CBC announced that it has signed a deal to broadcast eight Toronto Blue Jays games this summer, and up to 30 next year; and more positively, it was confirmed that the delightful Penelope Corrin has joined the cast of Royal Canadian Air Farce full-time.
“It’s a real full year of programming,” Layfield said. “We’re very proud of it.”
Now, as always, it’s up to the viewers.
