So, what happened? Last week, CTV and CBS debuted a new TV series called Flashpoint. The police drama is a Canadian production that was picked up by the U.S. network, which is the reverse of what normally happens when a Canadian network gets the rights to simulcast a U.S. series.
Is this the first time this has happened? No, but it's been a while. The last Canadian series to debut in primetime on major networks in Canada and the United States simultaneously was Due South, the show about a Mountie in Chicago, in 1994.
What's the show about? The series covers the actions of an elite police force called the Strategic Response Unit, which like a SWAT team is called in to handle the really difficult (i.e. dramatic) situations. It stars Enrico Colantoni (of Veronica Mars) and Hugh Dillon (of Durham County). It has a budget of $20 million for 13 episodes, making it CTV's most expensive series ever.
What have the critics said about it? Bad things. The Boston Globe was particularly harsh, saying it was "just going through the motions" and had "only the faintest afterimage of originality." Other reviews were similar, saying it was just copying a generic cop show formula and turned out dull. This is despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the first episode was based on a real hostage-taking that happened in Toronto in 2004.
What did they say in Canada? Reviews were also mixed. TV Guide called it "exciting," while the Globe and Mail said it was "neither brilliant nor bad." Most Canadian reviews focused on the novelty of a Canadian series being picked up by CBS.
And what about the viewers? Depends what country's viewers you're talking about, but Flashpoint won its timeslot on both sides of the border. It was the fifth most-watched show in Canada that week (and the only Canadian show in the top 10), with 1.1 million viewers.
And in the U.S.? The show had 8.3 million viewers, edging out ABC's 20/20 and NBC's Dateline.
That doesn't sound too bad. True. And getting any viewers in this timeslot is noteworthy. At 10 p.m. on Fridays, it's considered the graveyard of primetime, an hour when nobody has the television on. Series tend to be moved there just before they're cancelled.
And CTV has it in the same time slot? Yes, though it's repeating the show on Sunday nights to get a few more hundred thousand viewers. Having the shows on at the same time allows CTV to take advantage of CRTC's "simultaneous substitution" rule, which means that cable and satellite companies must replace CBS's signal with CTV's and Canadian ads air on both channels.
So the series is set in Canada? Yes, but there's some controversy over that. While CTV says it's "set proudly in Toronto," and it's set against clearly Toronto backgrounds of the CN Tower and Toronto subway stations, the name of the city isn't mentioned on the show. CTV denies this was done to make the setting ambiguous so American viewers might think it was set in a U.S. city.
So could this be a new beginning for Canadian productions in U.S. primetime? Maybe, maybe not. A year ago this week, ABC premiered a U.S. version of the Just for Laughs Gags hidden-camera series in primetime. The show created new introductions for the segments, but kept the same gag footage shot in Montreal, complete with cheesy music to replace any potentially francophone dialogue. Despite the recognizable police cars and buildings, the series never mentioned where it was shot, leading some viewers to think it might be set in a South American city. This show was also panned by critics, and though it survived the summer season and even came back mid-season, it was finally cancelled in May.
But still, this show was picked up for a reason, right? Yes. It was picked up because there was a writer's strike in the U.S. Networks were scrambling to find ways to fill their primetime schedules, unsure how long a dispute between studios and the Writer's Guild of America would last. Because the show is a Canadian production (it was approved at CTV before CBS bought rights to it), written by Canadian writers and starring Canadian actors, it was unaffected by the strike.
Open-ended discussion question: What would you compromise (in terms of timeslot, setting, plot and cultural references) in a Canadian television series in order to get it on a U.S. network and potentially increase its audience 10-fold?
© Montreal Gazette
