Hudson and Rex is making a return to Citytv with John Reardon as the human lead.HO/The Canadian Press
Canada is the only country in the world where we get more animated about television regulation than what’s actually on TV.
Last week, Ottawa’s industry-frustrating move to send an Online Streaming Act decision back to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission came in the middle of the annual “upfront” week when media conglomerates lay out their exciting new programming for advertisers.
The former generated more Canadian water-cooler chit-chat than the latter.
But we’d all be more content if we talked a little less about how the Canadian screen sector is going to the dogs – and more about how it’s literally going to the dogs.
The Littlest Hobo is being rebooted by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg for Crave; CBC is rebooting Clifford the Big Red Dog for the kids; and Citytv’s Hudson and Rex is rebooting itself by bringing back John Reardon as the human lead.
Here are some other stray thoughts from the upfronts – ranked from best to worst in terms of Canadian programming.
Bell Media: 10/10
If the rise of streaming has been cataclysmic for Canadian TV, Bell Media never got the memo.
The media conglomerate invested in building up a popular, bilingual streaming service in Crave – which now has the fourth most subscribers of its streamer cohort country-wide and third most in Quebec.
It’s making original content to please subscribers, not CanCon – that cursed term! – to placate the CRTC. For a couple weeks over the holidays, six of its top 10 shows were its own.
Crave's Heated Rivalry is getting a second season.HO/The Canadian Press
Bell Media might beat that record with the original content unveiled last week for CTV and Crave, a whopping 118 titles.
The scripted line-up has something for all tastes – new takes on The Littlest Hobo and Meatballs, season two of Heated Rivalry and Empathie, and a slew of comedies set in Winnipeg, Hamilton, Montreal and an unspecified part of Atlantic Canada where mermaids exist, which all sound like crass Canadian fun.
Crave has even commissioned the kind of literary and play adaptations (The Hidden Keys; Yaga) public broadcasters in other countries do. Which brings us to...
CBC: 6/10
While Bell reboots old CanCon (The Littlest Hobo; Meatballs), CBC is making shows that only sound like reboots.
Blessed Sacrament, a new medical drama from 90210 star-turned screenwriter Kathleen Robertson, follows three siblings working at the hospital run by their mother.
That sounds an awful lot like Remedy, a Global TV show from a decade ago about three siblings working at a hospital run by their father.
Then, there’s The Service (a CBC dramedy set in the world of Canadian espionage) coming more than a decade after InSecurity (same).
Elsewhere, however, the English-language entertainment is showing a few shoots of original life alongside a renewed slate of cop shows set in every corner of the country.
The success of Heated Rivalry no doubt influenced CBC to break its omerta on hockey-themed dramas. Junior, inspired by executive producer P.K. Subban’s path to the NHL, will definitely get people talking because... well, P.K.
The comedy line-up looks strong, as always – with North of North returning, Son of a Critch signing off and a few promising new shows. The Ambassador, a new comedy starring Samantha Bee about a Canadian diplomat posted to Bulgaria, has even raised hopes the Ceeb might again make something as sharply satirical as The Newsroom.
Anna Lambe stars as Siaja in North of North.jasper savage/CBC/APTN/Netflix
Rogers: 4/10
There’s not much to talk about over at Citytv in terms of Canadian dramas – but I admire Rogers’ commitment to reworking its successful if slight slate to please audiences.
Not only will Hudson and Rex’s Reardon – whose ejection from the show after a battle with cancer made fans rabid – be back for its K-9th season, but casting has been upgraded at the popular Law and Order Toronto: Criminal Intent.
Luke Kirby, an Emmy winner whose critically acclaimed series include Slings & Arrows and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, will now be the co-lead cop alongside Kathleen Munroe. He replaces Aden Young, the Canadian-Australian over-actor who – regular viewers will know – has been fighting a serious case of Shatneritis.
Corus: 2/10
Canada’s second largest media conglomerate is the place where industry disruption of the past decade has most obviously disrupted
Global’s big new Canadian drama is... the same rebooted one that it announced last year. Private Eyes West Coast will see Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson tackle a new set of cases in a new part of Canada with a new set of provincial film and TV tax credits.
It’ll finally premiere on Global in September right after the still super-sized Survivor – meaning the hour-long show will have a 9:30 p.m. time slot.
Otherwise, Corus is looking a lot like a carcass being picked over by its competitors. Bell Media has grabbed the rights for Big Brother Canada for CTV from Global; and, having first scooped up the rights to the HGTV brand in 2024, Rogers has now has poached Corus-groomed hosts Bryan and Sarah Baeumler for three unscripted shows. Et tu, Baeumlers?
Amazon: 1/10
Amazon Canada’s Toronto upfront provided a helpful example of what the future of Canadian small-screen culture could look like if the streamer’s investment in local shows remains a function of noblesse oblige.
Seven new and returning Canadian Prime Video shows were announced by the world’s largest company by revenue – none scripted. It hasn’t delivered a scripted English-language Canadian original since The Sticky, which was cancelled mid-cliffhanger in 2024.
Hometown Giants, a new six-part docuseries, is the most intriguing unscripted project but still looks a bit like a This Hour Has 22 Minutes parody of FX’s Welcome to Wrexham. It will follow Michael Bublé and Drew Scott on their journey as part-owners of the junior hockey team called the Vancouver Giants.
The most tone-deaf bit of Prime Video programming is a true-crime documentary called The Pig Farm Killer, with the name of the notorious serial killer in question as the subtitle. Thanks, Amazon, for your commitment to exploiting, er, telling Canadian stories.