How low can you go?

This just in from CTV, in a boastful press release. Boldface is mine:

For the second consecutive week, Canadian Idol remains the Tuesday night champ, pushing aside all the competition and notably, its much-hyped American simulcast competitors Rock Star: Supernova and The One: Making a Music Star.

Canadian Idol finished the night with 1.65 million viewers, growing 34 per cent from last week, and surpassing Rock Star (Global/CBS at 1.28 million) by 29 per cent and The One (ABC/CBC at 150,000) by one thousand per cent -- or 11 times its audience.

Seems to me CBC would have done better, and for less money, with reruns of the Ralph Benmergui Show.

Still waiting to see if any CBC managers go splat on the atrium floor.

Meanwhile, can this be poor sportsmanship?

During Monday night's preshow festivities in Toronto for the live taping of the reality show Canadian Idol, two mounted police, a cruiser and a police van descended on the scene. Apparently, police were responding to a "noise complaint" from across the street, where public broadcaster CBC looms over Idol's home base, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Police confirmed to the CTV crew that the complaint originated from a CBC staffer.

 

Comments

[Ivan Prokopchuk]

Oh how we identify with Canadian Idol, no matter how far over the hill.

It seems as far as the CBC is concerned, saithood is achieved by being dyslexic, paraplegic and/or a single mother battling cancer. Personal excellence is frowned upon as being privileged and elitist. So they bring in a gong show like The One.
It is very possible that CBC management is dyslexic, paraplegic and full of single mothers battling cancer.

Canadian Idol forever. I have been an enertainer in the Fifties and CKVR Barrie television helped so much. Idol is like the good old days.
Rock on, Canadian Idol!

[Allan Sorensen]

Great minds think alike - sort of.
I too, Antonia,have been thinking of the pitiful state of the CBC, and it occurred to me to ask Ralph Benmurgui to come back and save Canadian broadcasting. He was prepared to take risks, and get in over his head (almost every time), but alas, he appears to be retired and currently spins jazz records at a local radio station. I guess the revolution is over for him.
I doubt though that anyone is going to go splat at the atrium, even if the bizarre architecture lends itself ideally for such a public display.
Canada seems to have a hush-hush policy when it comes to bloodletting in the broadcasting industry, unlike the US, where everything is fun and fair game and splashed on the front page.
The last "fun" I remember was the Pat Marsden firing at CTV.
And I still cheer the Znaimer exit, but feel deprived of the delicious details.
No, broadcasting in this country follows a pattern not unlike the Bush administration - keep a straight face and claim everything is fine until the bitter end, and only then find some no-fault way out of it.
Which is, come to think of it, also what the Truscott Inquiry is going through now.

Media content in Canada totally sucks.
The Star could perform a great service by regularly publishing the ratings for TV and radio, so that the public can see for themselves how fake or genuine is that audience applause in the background.
Nothing would make the network moguls sweat more than Canadians seeing the programs report cards every week.
And one more thing could be done to move this country forward:
That is for the new generation to start creating original content without fear or favor.

[Ivan Prokopchuk]

Salud Allan Sorenson.

That's about as French as I'll get.

Have you seen CBC French programming, the variety shows?
Dance le Gargoyles!

[Bill Doskoch]

I suspect I don't have it anymore, but back in the day, Frank magazine did a nifty chart of what it called the Ralph Benmergui Deathwatch.

I believe the nadir was when the lead guest was a plate-spinner. :)

[Elvid]

The slippage continues in "The One"'s ratings. Sounds like its going to join that panthenon of Canadian Canuck disasters like Radisson, Jalna and Peter Gzowski's talk show. And 150,000 is with the benefit of simulcasting.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&tab=wn&ncl=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060727.wxnote27-1/BNStory/Entertainment/home

.... Despite much finger-crossing at CBC Television, its new reality show The One: Making a Music Star continued its dismal showing on the public airwaves. Viewership plunged further during the second week of the George Stroumboulopoulos-hosted show to 150,000 on Tuesday night, compared with 236,000 viewers it drew from 9 to 11 the previous week. The ratings winner of the musical-talent showdown Tuesday night was CTV's Canadian Idol (with 1.65-million viewers), while Global's Rock Star: Supernova delivered 1.28-million, according to Nielsen Media Research.