TORONTO – Rogers-owned Citytv is banking on “LOL funny” to attract even more viewers this fall.
The network was the first to stage its ‘upfront’ presentation this week, unveiling its newly minted 2012-13 fall and mid-season prime-time schedule on Tuesday. Shaw Media and Bell Media are slated to hold their events on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
The schedule includes nine new comedies, including two originals set to debut mid-season, four new dramas, and the first Canadian version of reality series The Bachelor. In addition, Citytv said that 67% of its programs are returning from last year (the most of any Canadian network, it claims), noting that every returning show ended the year with stronger audiences than when they started.
Rogers Media president Keith Pelley told Cartt.ca that the network’s biggest change will be a revamped Sunday night lineup.
“The bottom line with our schedule is we’re better every single day and the biggest improvement we have is Sunday nights”, he said in an interview. “Where we were never able to compete before on Sunday nights, with the move to Revenge, which is kind of our Desperate Housewives, and with adding 666 Park Avenue, our Sunday night is really strong.”
Returning sitcoms include New Girl, 2 Broke Girls, Suburgatory, Don't Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, and Last Man Standing, while new additions include Partners, Ben and Kate, The Mindy Project, and Malibu Country. Also back are dramas Revenge, Person of Interest and Scandal.
Mid-season programming will include Hannibal and The Carrie Diaries, as well as comedies 1600 Penn, The Goodwin Games, and How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life). That’s also when the new Canadian-made comedies Package Deal and Seed will make their debut.
Produced by Thunderbird Films, Package Deal is a 13-episode, half-hour series about three overly close brothers and the woman who comes between them. Seed, which is produced by Force Four Entertainment, is a 13-episode, half-hour series about a sperm donor who becomes entangled in the lives of his new-found children and their less-than-thrilled families, whether they want him to or not.
“We’re the leader in comedy, no question”, Pelley added. “We have 18 comedies and I think that’s more than the other two networks combined. So, it was a natural, for us, in our foray into Canadian production.”
Other highlights include Jimmy Kimmel Live! added to the late-night lineup as well as Katie, a new daytime talk show hosted by former network star Katie Couric.
Over on sister-network OMNI Television, Rock Center with Brian Williams joins the lineup this fall, along with the comedy Rules of Engagement and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
In an effort to shore up advertising in a market that Pelley said remains “soft”, Citytv will experiment by taking two “socially-engaged series”, New Girl and The Middle, and make them available to advertisers on television, online, mobile and tablet with the same commercial inventory, sold as one buy.
“There’s no question that advertisers and clients are looking for multiplatform solutions and we’re well positioned to be able to address that”, he said.
– Greg O’Brien and Lesley Hunter
