The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » If Trump Talks In U.S. Primetime, What Do Canadian TV Stations Do?

RadioActive · January 7, 2019 3:32 pm

Here's something I never really considered before: what do Canadian stations do if the U.S. President requests network airtime down south, and it destroys their precious - and lucrative - simsub plans?

We may find out on Tuesday, after Trump indicated he wants a national forum to address the American government shutdown. While the other networks have yet to respond as of this posting, only Fox (big surprise!) has indicated it will interrupt a new episode of The Gifted to broadcast the speech.

So far, no word on NBC, CBS or ABC's plans, but there are new episodes of other shows set to roll after a long holiday rerun period and whatever you think of Trump, all that free airtime will cost them a lot of money. And under the rules, I'm not sure that if the president - no matter who it is - requests network time, the Big Four can really say no.

But my question concerns the Canadian stations, which depend on simsub to charge advertisers here more. CTV has a duplicate of NBC's "Ellen's Game of Games" scheduled. Global has CBS's "FBI" ready to go at 9 PM. And City TV was planning to parallel "The Gifted."

Do they substitute something else or just show the episodes here anyway? And if the latter, what happens next week when those same episodes run in the U.S.? And with such short notice, can they make these changes in time?

Ah, the perils of simultaneous substitution. It's not just a problem for the Super Bowl anymore.

President Trump Seeking Tuesday Primetime Slot to Discuss Shutdown — Will the Networks Say Yes?

Chrisphen · January 7, 2019 3:39 pm

The irresponsible idiot thing to do would be to carry it. They'll likely carry it.

RadioActive · January 7, 2019 4:31 pm

While the Canadian stations almost certainly won't air Trump, there is another possibility. The U.S. networks could air their regularly scheduled episodes on a delay basis, like CBS does with its primetime line-up after football on Sunday.

So if you're DVR-ing (is that an official word yet?) anything off an American station on Tuesday, you could miss the beginning and/or the ending, depending on how long the Narcissist-In-Chief prattles on.

splunge · January 7, 2019 5:14 pm

CNN's Brian Selter tweeted a quote from an exec at one of the Big Four...TV exec texts: "He calls us fake news all the time, but needs access to airwaves… If we give him the time, he'll deliver a fact-free screed without rebuttal. And if we don't give him the time, he'll call every network partisan. So we are damned if we do and damned if we don't."

Another quote from a splinternews article "There is also precedent for networks declining to carry a presidential address live: In 2014, most major networks chose not to break into such favorites as The Big Bang Theory and Bones to carry Obama’s speech about immigration policy, using the excuse that it was “overtly political.”

Dial Twister · January 7, 2019 5:16 pm

RadioActive wrote:
President Trump Seeking Tuesday Primetime Slot to Discuss Shutdown — Will the Networks Say Yes?

Falsehoods. Exaggerations up the yin yang. Threats. Incoherent ramblings. How could they NOT air it? Usually, they have to pay big bucks to writers for this kind of crap.

RadioActive · January 7, 2019 8:41 pm

And the decision is in.

Broadcast Networks Deliberate, Then Decide to Carry Trump's Border Speech

The good news is the "speech" isn't expected to last much longer than about eight minutes. Expect analysis and fact checking to follow.

splunge · January 7, 2019 9:02 pm

if you knew a train wreck was about to take place, wouldn't you want the cameras in place before the event?

RadioActive · January 7, 2019 10:11 pm

Alex Pierson has said GNR 640 plans to carry it live.

RadioActive · January 7, 2019 10:58 pm

Chuck99 wrote:
CBC and CTV news channels might carry the speech. But since it is supposed to be less than ten minutes long, I would hope that main networks would air their U.S. shows at their regular times.

That would make sense. But now there are reports that the Democrats are demanding equal time to respond to Trump, which could mess up the U.S. primetime schedule even worse if the networks decide to grant the request. And given how much the Amnets hate Trump, I find it hard to believe they won't. (With the possible exception of Fox, of course.)

So what the Canadian stations do - not to mention U.S. network affiliates in other time zones, which really won't be affected - remains to be seen.

Chrisphen · January 7, 2019 11:04 pm

RadioActive wrote:
Alex Pierson has said GNR 640 plans to carry it live.

Q.E.D.

RadioActive · January 7, 2019 11:19 pm

I'm fairly sure the Canadian stations won't run Trump. It's whether to show an episode of an American program without benefit of simsub (and which could affect what they do next week, as well) that's the question. My guess? Alternate programming or a rerun of a previous episode if the U.S. networks opt to just skip their scheduled show and run it next week.

splunge · January 8, 2019 12:01 am

let's start some sort of charity site.... for every minute he speaks live on canadian ota, a dollar to the jar. every lie = $10

steve dangle did that on his LFR youtube about mitch marner and has raised over $5k for sick kids....

RadioActive · January 8, 2019 12:52 am

Well it looks like the Canuck stations will be showing either reruns or alternate programming. TV Guide's American site confirms the Amnets have decided to scrub all their Tuesday 9PM shows for the President, the Dems and whatever else comes up.

Call it The Trump Bump.

https://www.tvguide.com/news/president-trump-address-tuesday-fbi-blackish/

ED1 · January 8, 2019 12:20 pm

During the midterm elections in the US, Global ran one of the Avengers or Marvel movies. I think CTV had a movie as well. Don't know what Citytv did.

RadioActive · January 8, 2019 12:47 pm

It's almost certain the Canadian OTA networks will not run the Trump speech. They never ran anything Obama did, either, or any other president, and unless they're declaring WWIII, they likely never will. Because it's only an hour or less, a rerun of a previously scheduled series is the easiest way to get through the gap. The shows at 10, like "New Amsterdam" on Global, should run as normal.

The Canadian all-news channels definitely WILL run it, because no matter how many truths or untruths there may be in it, it's still news and what other live news event is going on at 9 PM on a Tuesday night in January?

(Oddly, I sometimes listen to CBC Radio 1's newscast at the top of the hour and am amazed at how often they lead with Trump or what's going on in Washington, as opposed to a story that took place in Canada. Isn't that their mandate?)

January 8, 2019 1:21 pm

Chuck99 wrote:
Trump is so disliked in Canada, I think the main networks would be flooded with complaints if they aired his speech live

CBC - Schitt's Creek; CTV - Game of Games; Global - FBI; US networks - POTUS. IMHO Cdn networks will be ignored if they DON'T run POTUS

RadioActive · January 8, 2019 2:22 pm

RadioActive wrote:
Well it looks like the Canuck stations will be showing either reruns or alternate programming. TV Guide's American site confirms the Amnets have decided to scrub all their Tuesday 9PM shows for the President, the Dems and whatever else comes up.

Call it The Trump Bump.

https://www.tvguide.com/news/president-trump-address-tuesday-fbi-blackish/

This just keeps getting stranger. From TV Line.com:

"Fox, for one, says it still plans to air its schedule in full, while CBS is bumping its fresh episodes of FBI and NCIS: New Orleans to next week (NCIS proper remains unaffected). No word yet from ABC and NBC."

While the Big 3 say they'll air the Democrats response, it appears (again big surprise!) Fox will apparently go to "The Gifted" right after Trump's speech ends, around 9:08 PM. So if you're not taping this off of City, extend the record time on your DVR if this is one of your shows.

[Edit 1: NBC says "New Amsterdam" will start around 10:22 PM, so more DVR time is needed there, too.]

[Edit 2: NBC now says it will join an "Ellen"s Game of Games" rerun in progress and show "New Amsterdam" at 10 PM as normally scheduled. Meanwhile, ABC will air its entire line-up delayed until after the speech and the Dem's response to it. What a mess!]

Last edited by RadioActive (January 8, 2019 4:09 pm)

Hansa · January 8, 2019 2:36 pm

This used to happen more frequently. As I recall, in simsub situations with pre-recorded programs the Canadian station usually proceeds with scheduled program. If they are simulcasting a live program they usually run a substitute like an old rerun or something else taken off the shelf. They would usually only simulcast the Presidential broadcast if it was a true international emergency such as Bush the Elder's broadcast as the US invasion of Iraq began or maybe smaller military actions like the invasion of Panama or Grenada or historic events such as Nixon's resignation but not as I recall for smaller domestic crises.

John D · January 8, 2019 4:15 pm

That's why I am taping west coast feeds tonight.

RadioActive · January 8, 2019 4:25 pm

John D wrote:
That's why I am taping west coast feeds tonight.

Probably the wisest decision you could make, although if it's not new on the east coast, it won't be new on the west.

From what I've read, Trump really threw the networks for a loop, with less than 24 hours to prepare for whatever comes next. That's not a long time when you're going into the first night of the so-called "second season."

The one thing I've learned through all this is that there's no regulation that forces the networks to cover a president's address to the nation. I always thought there was some sort of FCC edict to that regard, but apparently, each one can make the decision yay or nay on their own. In this case, the backlash if they hadn't taken it would have just added more fuel to the "media is the enemy" fire. So they were wise to bite this bullet.

Besides, with all this hype, it's going to be Must See TV, no matter what he says.

Last edited by RadioActive (January 8, 2019 4:29 pm)

January 8, 2019 4:47 pm

Radioactive wrote:
with all this hype, it's going to be Must See TV, no matter what he says.

BINGO!

RadioActive · January 8, 2019 10:44 pm

Well, it's done. So here's who did what, if anybody still cares.

CTV showed two "Big Bang Theory" reruns for the hour.

Global went with an old "FBI."

And City showed the new episode of "The Gifted," because Fox already committed to running it after the speech.

Meanwhile, NBC joined an "Ellen's Game of Games" in progress (which left Global free to simulcast "New Amsterdam" at 10, as scheduled.)

ABC went with all their regular shows, albeit about 24 minutes late.

CBS vamped with an episode of "The Neighbourhood" for half an hour at 9:30.

And so Trump's first and so far only Oval Office address to the nation is over. I watched it. Did anyone notice the weird sniffing thing that came out of him every time he took a breath? It got very distracting by the end of the 8 minutes or so that he spoke.

Oh, and beyond the cable stations that went with normal programming and Netflix, Crave etc.,, there was one other alternative at 9PM.

Stormy Daniels to fold laundry in her underwear on Instagram live during Trump's speech.

Man, talk about your counter programming and literally airing your dirty laundry in public...

zed · January 9, 2019 8:59 am

I watched Trump out of curiosity and was amazed at how uncomfortable he looked and that weird sniffing sound was part of it. Many of the words and phrases could have worked BUT they weren't the typical Trump speech we've all become accustomed to (apparently his speech writers are more articulate than he is, no stretch there!).
Later it was revealed that in an "off the record" luncheon with anchors and reporters he said he really didn't want to do the speech or the border visit later this week but his advisors thought he should. WOW, great 'leadership' there Mr. Trump (and I use the term Mr. with no respect at all).

Hansa · January 9, 2019 11:30 am

zed wrote:
I watched Trump out of curiosity and was amazed at how uncomfortable he looked and that weird sniffing sound was part of it

Cocaine is a harsh mistress.

RadioActive · January 16, 2019 11:44 am

Oh the irony!

Trump's Third State of the Union Address Might Not Be Televised, Due to Government Shutdown

Kilgore · January 16, 2019 2:00 pm

What would the average Cdn prefer . . . examine Daniel Dale's latest list of Trump's lies (recent history) in the Red Star, or watch Trump's next State of the Union Address (history in the making?)

January 16, 2019 5:21 pm

Chuck99 wrote:
Trump fatigue has developed in Canada. Very few people in my inner circle talk about him anymore

Out of curiosity, what are the current hot discussion topics within your inner circle while the President of the USA is boring the rest of humanity?

Last edited by geo (January 16, 2019 6:08 pm)

January 16, 2019 6:55 pm

Chuck99 wrote:
the NHL regular season.

Can Jake Gardiner be unloaded?

splunge · January 16, 2019 7:53 pm

geo wrote:
Chuck99 wrote:
the NHL regular season.
Can Jake Gardiner be unloaded?

ha! Gardiner is a lot like trump... he can screw up a dozen things badly, but people ignore that because he does one good thing!

Dial Twister · January 16, 2019 9:23 pm

Drumpf has lots to say about hockey.