Headline, Industry News

CBC adds U.S. content

TORONTO — The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is bolstering its U.S. content supply even further this fall after a period in which the broadcaster jettisoned American programming.

The pubcaster will air “Jeopardy” nightly as a lead-in to its primetime schedule, while “Wheel of Fortune” will air in pre-primetime to boost viewership for local supper-hour newscasts.

The CBC acquired the Canadian rights to the popular American game shows from CBS Paramount International Television for this season after rival CTV decided to give them up.

The Canadian public broadcaster largely shunned American programming during the 1990s to distinguish itself from private-sector rivals, but in recent years has slowly returned to the Hollywood well to boost audience and ad revenues.

As the CBC unveiled its fall 2008 schedule Monday, the public broadcaster said it will bring back Showtime’s “The Tudors” for a second season, as well as the homegrown dramas “The Border” and “Heartland.”

Also returning is “Little Mosque on the Prairie” for another 20 episodes, and 18 new episodes of “Sophie,” which airs on ABC Family.

New on the fall 2008 roster for the CBC is the miniseries “Celine,” a biopic about Celine Dion that stars Christine Ghawi as the Quebec songstress and Enrico Colantoni as her manager and husband Rene Angelil.

And the public broadcaster will air “Everest,” a miniseries about the first Canadians to scale the world’s highest peak, which stars Jason Priestley and William Shatner.

The Canadian Upfronts will continue next week with advertiser pitches by rivals CTV and CanWest Media.

Source: Hollywood Reporter