Front Page, Industry News

CBC’S UNDERDOGS Is Top Dog With Consumers

Viewership for CBC Television’s new four-part series UNDERDOGS has nearly doubled since its debut in mid-November, with a ratings increase of over 80 per cent from episode two to episode three. Last week’s episode attracted 408,000 viewers.

Viewers are intrigued by this homegrown reality series hosted by Gemini award-winning journalist Wendy Mesley that brings consumers face-to-face with big corporations. Many of the underdogs featured in the series have overcome seemingly impossible odds and forced many companies to change their behaviour.

The season finale of UNDERDOGS, airing Thursday, Dec. 7 at 8 p.m., promises to showcase the most frustrating, inspiring and amusing underdog fights of the series with some surprising results. This emotional finale sees Mesley bring a widowed grandmother to the corporate headquarters of one of Canada’s largest utility providers, and the youngest underdog of the series will make waves through his fight with one of Canada’s largest bathroom tissue companies.

CBC has heard from more than two thousand Canadians who are inspired by this program, and determined to tell their underdog story. UNDERDOGS is a CBC Television production, developed and produced by the team that produces CBC News: Marketplace.