Did not watch either the first or second time around, and will not watch them this time around.   I truly believe that the CBC needs to be cut way back.  One english and one french network, and the same thing with radio.  All of the other channels gone.  We don't need CBC Gem costing tax payer dollars to fund this sort of filler, same with their news channels.  If they have good programming that they think people will watch put them on the main channels, otherwise let them go.  They are just bloated, expensive wastes of space on the dials.   
 

Also, local good guy Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is joining the Murdoch cast this year.

I watched Murdoch Mysteries a bit years ago and overall thought it was well done.  I like the era it is set and some of the cases mixed with humour.  But haven't watched it in years.

Surprising how popular Heartland is outside of Canada.  A few weeks back we were visiting some old school friends that live near where Heartland is filmed.  High River is a beautiful town of about 24,000 people an hour south of Calgary.  It is sort of a central point for the show.  Maggie's Diner is a full fledged restaurant that is on the main street that was built/converted for the show. The town also has lots of Heartland swag and souvenirs for sale. 

A retailer told me that many thousands of people visit High River from all over the world every year just because of Heartland.  She said that in July a young couple from South Korea came into her store and told her that they were spending their honeymoon in Central Alberta for 10 days.  They came all this way because they were both Heartland fanatics and wanted to see where it was filmed. Lucky for them the show was still wrapping up their 18th season for filming when they were in High River.  

 

Dear John was a post-Taxi series for Judd Hirsch and ran on NBC for a few seasons. It was great and, like Taxi, was cancelled way too soon. For those who watch OTA, it was on Antenna TV on Buffalo subcarrier channel 2.2 for a few years. 

As for CBC Gem, a lot of people know I'm not a huge fan of the Corp. But I have to admit, its website is really worth exploring if you've never been there. In addition to the Canadian shows, which many of us can take or leave, they have a ton of stuff from the U.S. and overseas which you won't find for free anywhere else.

Critical hits like Killing Eve is there. So is Pen15. the entire series of the U.K. comedy Ghosts (which the CBS series is based on), Poker Face (which otherwise airs on Peacock), and the Showtime series "Masters of Sex," based on the lives of sex researchers Masters & Johnson. I've seen that one and it's pretty good. 

The CBC site, does indeed, have a few "Gems" and even if you haven't signed in or joined, it's worth taking a tiptoe through the titles just to see what non-Canadian programming is there. And as I always say, you can't beat free.