"costs in a 'challenging' ad environment"

coupled with the drop in Corus share prices... Corus non-voting B shares have been sitting at $1.01 to $1.04 the last few days...

 

Last edited by Glen Warren (September 27, 2023 12:23 pm)

Also affected, the cancellation of "The New Reality", weekly 30 min. program under national news budget.

Early numbers indicate a significant number of positions are affected by these two cancellation decisions, both full time and contract.


 

Last edited by Glen Warren (September 27, 2023 12:40 pm)

Radiowiz wrote:

Bring back Train 48. I have no objection to the very idea of deliberate product placement either.
 

I really enjoyed that show!

paterson1 wrote:

I always thought ET Canada had more professional hosts than the two annoying current main hosts on the original Entertainment Tonight.  More details on the cancellation from CBC News..
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/et-canada-ending-18-seasons-1.6979727 

ET Canada also covered entertainment stories and new shows from other networks. It’s not a big internal PR machine like CTV’s eTalk.

Global incurred a large yearly licence fee from Paramount (and now CBS/Viacom/Paramount) for the rights for ET being produced at ET Canada. Production book, Style Guide, Music bed, Set Design (had to follow American version, any re-design had to be in step with L.A.).

This was in addition to the the Canadian production costs (talent, producers/writers, crew).

And the rights to the nightly ET were a separate fee above and beyond the above licence for ET Canada.  

Very costly for a nightly 1 hour television block (30 mins for ET,  and 30 mins for ET Canada).

I also wonder if the US strikes for the Writers Guild and Screen Actors have played into this to a degree... without series and movies in production, there really isn't much entertainment news to present...  except for Taylor Swift becoming an NFL fan...


 

Historically CTV's E Talk usually beat both ET Canada and Entertainment Tonight in ratings.  The last show for ET Canada will air on October 6th .Global hasn't announced what will replace the program.   

 

BowmanvilleBob wrote:

.....

Also, it's worth noting that much of the material on ET Canada duplicated what had been seen in the previous 30 minutes on ET USA. Viewers aren't stupid, and it's likely that most didn't hang around to see the same stuff repeated.

 

Further to this, Global ET Canada could use up to 35 percent of the US show content on a particular day.  There were also many items from the US version which were embargoed, or for US domestic use use only, so in these instances, that content would not have been available to ET Canada anyway.  The rest of the Canadian show focused on Canadian entertainers both here at home, or in the US. Global / ET Canada was also able to sell show sponsor ships for special features or segments, and were not bound by sponsorship deals on the US version.

Fashion?  Not really entertainment, but hey, I guess some of the big names covered would be wearing "fashion" so that could be melded into "entertainment".   TIFF, Canadian Junos, CCMAs,  MMVAs (in the day) or Canadian Screen Awards...  sure cover em...  But, taking a production ream over to London for William and Kate's wedding??? never quite understood why...  but it cost money.   News was already there, so that should have sufficed....   (just my 2 cents,  which is also about the value of the dividend currently being paid on a Corus "B" share).

 

CBC TV should cover more of the mainstream entertainment business in Canada.  BBC does in the UK. with the long running Top of the Pops, Brit Awards, Radio 1 and 2 etc.  In fact BBC has a whole television channel dedicated to entertainment.  And the channel is largely mainstream.

CBC has never seemed comfortable covering mainstream entertainment. They do a good job with more alternative or independent and classical arts, but with popular fare not so much. They should be able to do both, similar to BBC.  Not sure about a daily entertainment program, but CBC television needs to do a better job covering events like TIFF, Juno Awards and general mainstream entertainment here and internationally.

Having said that...they did have the best report and coverage on ET Canada being cancelled, at least on the much criticized CBC.ca.

Last edited by paterson1 (September 27, 2023 9:03 pm)

RadioAaron wrote:

....

Is neutrality part of ET Canada's agreement with CBS/Viacom?

Possibly / probably...  but I don't know the fine details or specifics... but,

I do know that an entertainment based show was planned as early as the late winter / early spring of 2005 for Global under Barb Williams when she was head of programming at Global.  Individual auditions and then call backs and pairings with potential hosts / co-hosts...   Exec Pro hiring,   etc.   but not a lot of fine details... (Williams and the original exec producer came to Global from Craig Broadcasting's "Toronto 1" startup in 2003...   recall that Toronto 1 had a nightly entertainment show "A List" or something like that)

Once Train 48 wrapped (it was actually cancelled, and the production budget was assigned to "Entertainment"), Studio 1 was cleared of the Train set, and construction of the "Entertainment" set commenced. 

Global had been carrying ET almost since it debuted in the 80s....  but the deal to produce the Canadian version was not actually signed until late July / early August of 2005, so kinda last minute/rushed.   Two weeks before ET Canada was to go to air, a couple of execs flew up from LA to check on the progress of ET Canada... During the studio tour one of the LA execs asked about the one area at the left side of the set... "Oh that is where we will showcase and have bands and singers perform"  the reply was "Entertainment Tonight does not do live music performance in the studio"  To which the then Global EP replied, "Yes, but we have this area for music and artists in Canada" and again the LA exec restated that "No Music performance is allowed in studio for ET...  check your contract, read your production bible". 

There were also some other smaller items that were on the LA punch list that required attention or had to be brought better into line to conform with the LA show / ET brand. (this is nothing new...  any company that licences an existing brand or product has to protect their brand / image... they want to maintain the brand / standard... not present another image or style which could damage the existing or established product).  This is typical in TV... in Sports, it is quite common for the League to actually have reps walk thru the various production trucks on site... they want to check shots, and just verify what you are doing as a rights holder and what you are going to be putting on the air...  NFL and MLB do this before major championship games/series. The Masters tightly controls the look of Master Coverage from Augusta... they have an image, and they want to maintain that image.

So a bit of a scramble 2 weeks before launch, but they got it on air, and kept LA happy.

Incidentally, that music performance area that I mentioned stood in the one side of the studio for about 4 or 5 months until it was pulled out during the first year Christmas break...  and put into storage...  never to be used again. It was largely steel box stage truss sections, with the main span being a custom designed curved piece...  so it really could not be used for much else...   money wasted.

 

Entertainment writer Richard Crouse says shows like ET are under constant pressure these days because much of what they discuss about celebrities is scooped by the celebs themselves on social media.   It wasn't like that 20 years-ago.    Sure a lot of other concerns are prominent like CORUS's financial problems and cost cuts, but he's right in saying old-style programming like that is going out of style because it's being replaced by social media.   It's very regrettable however because they did a stand-up job on the Canadian entertainment scene and their hosts Cheryl Hickey and Sangita Patel are solid and familiar to Toronto viewers of course because of their previous roles on Global and CITY respectively.   I believe they both did weather in the beginning before eventually ending up there.

Last edited by SpinningWheel (September 28, 2023 12:07 pm)

SpinningWheel wrote:

Entertainment writer Richard Crouse says shows like ET are under constant pressure these days because much of what they discuss about celebrities is scooped by the celebs themselves on social media.   It wasn't like that 20 years-ago.    Sure a lot of other concerns are prominent like CORUS's financial problems and cost cuts, but he's right in saying old-style programming like that is going out of style because it's being replaced by social media.   It's very regrettable however because they did a stand-up job on the Canadian entertainment scene and their hosts Cheryl Hickey and Sangita Patel are solid and familiar to Toronto viewers of course because of their previous roles on Global and CITY respectively.   I believe they both did weather in the beginning before eventually ending up there.

True... it was a different time 18 years ago... no streaming, hi tech was a Motorola Flip Phone, and gas was 82 cents/litre.  BTW, many reports seem to forget to mention or are confused by who the original on air team for ETC was.  The original on air team consisted of Hickey, Rick Campanelli, Russ (Roz) Weston, Rosie Edah, and Kim D'Eon

MJ Vancouver wrote:

If I remember correctly Cheryl did weather and and traffic on Global when she first joined, and then got into entertainment when Bob McAdorey retired in 2000. They did a lot of entertainment news on the 5:30-6:00 show back then.

Not as I recall...  Bob McAdorey, Elaine Loring, and Rob Davidson were the Entertainment unit of Global News with Producer Bonnie Laufer. Back in the 80s and 90s, Global would produce an afternoon news update, and two entertainment updates which were very topical and focused on the afternoon soaps airing on Global. They also filled the gap in time due to the shorter content / additional commercials spots permitted on the US Networks.

Paul Rogers hired Cheryl Hickey in May of 1999 form The NewVR (CKVR/CHUM), and she was hired as a videographer doing lighter/softer stories... never hard news. She was later trained on the WESCAM for the original Global News Chopper. She never did weather on Global, and as regular traffic spots were not a fixture in an evening newscast, her traffic reports would be limited to a serious accident on an area highway if the chopper was airborne, and if it occurred during the live newscast only.  (During the summer months, Paul Rogers had lured Henry "The Mighty Metropolis of MacTier" Shannon out of retirement to do Cottage Traffic reports on Friday afternoons and Sunday Evenings...  "still checking, back to you Bev"...

By the early 2000s, Canadian rules for advertising spots on TV were "relaxed" a bit.   Global stopped the longer afternoon Entertainment piece, and went with two News Updates.  Global also started producing a series of weekly "Entertainment Updates" which were about 30 secs. each, and teased that week's upcoming episode of "Will and Grace" or "Seinfeld"  etc.  Cheryl was on camera for these updates/fillers which would run throughout the day schedule, but she did not write or produce them.  She later was on camera for the weekly "Survivor" updates which started airing shortly after Global renewed the original CBS prime time series in 2002.


 

Sad. So many jobs lost. I wish them all the best.

For those who missed it, here's the YouTube version, showing what actually aired.
NOT the Instagram version (original audio, Cheryl Hickey) where Cheryl swore at the end saying "Holy F*** Please don't make us do this again..."  



 

Last edited by Radiowiz (September 29, 2023 10:53 am)

Not Corrus or Global related per say but in the same theme of brutality , there was a poster here some years back that used  an actual name that he used on air, as his moniker on the board. The surname was Marshall. He always referred to anything Bell related as Bhell. Who knew he would eventually proven to be a prophet. 

RadioActive wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

Historically CTV's E Talk usually beat both ET Canada and Entertainment Tonight in ratings.  The last show for ET Canada will air on October 6th .Global hasn't announced what will replace the program.

Turns out the original ET from America is the replacement. That show, still in syndication, has been slipped into the 7 PM time slot, with a repeat at 12:30 PM the next day after the noon news. Perhaps they hope viewers won't notice the difference.

This must have the penny pinchers at Corus chortling in glee. Not only do they get to save on all those salaries, but now they can simulcast the show, blocking out WGRZ in Buffalo, which also shows it at 7 PM. 

Not sure what you are talking about.  The US version of Entertainment Tonight has always aired at 7pm on Global.  ET Canada is on in repeat at 7:30 with some of their generic or feature shows.  Global has scheduled the US version against CTV's ETalk at 7pm for many years but ETalk usually had better ratings even with simsub on US stations.