While I was watching Ed the Sock, several large messages scrolled on the TV screen, reminding me that Ed would soon be no more. After 25 years of providing solid entertainment, the unique and all-Canadian talkshow puppet – an idea that could only come about in Canada – is going off the air thanks to Rogers, the epitome of a souless Canadian corporation.
The irony is that this particular episode I was watching was about celebrating everything Canadian. I’m not exactly sure why, nor do I really care, but I do know they had a girl in a hot tub gulping maple syrup whenever Ed made a joke about beavers. See, Canadians CAN produce good TV…
So the story is that Rogers acquired CityTV, the producer of Ed, less than a year ago, and I guess they decided that Ed didn’t really fit-in with their image of being a family-friendly and morally responsible company on the outside (while being a very immoral company underneath). Even worse, they want to turn CityTV into a woman’s channel. As if the world needs another one of those!
Also, as the above article mentions, dumping Ed gives them more room for their “U.S. acquired programming”.
Very ironic when you consider that the CRTC (twisted Canadian equivalent of the FCC) has for many years banned most American networks from entering Canada, under the premise that this protects Canadian television!
Of course, such doesn’t prohibit Canadian networks from broadcasting American shows, and it essentially gives them exclusive rights to those shows. Why even bother producing your own creative content, when you have a monopoly on content that was produced for someone else?
And that’s why 90% of the primetime programming on Canadian networks like CTV and CityTV are American shows, except with extra commercial time added to rake in the profits.
So here’s an idea: Maybe if American shows were allowed to be aired on the American networks they were intended for in Canada, all these Canadian networks would suddenly find themselves with empty schedules, which would force them to go out and produce their own content with all the money they’re currently using to buy American shows!
And they’d have to actually compete for viewers, instead of just bidding on the show that got the highest ratings two seasons ago in the U.S.
Until then, expect to see more home-grown shows like Ed the Sock getting the axe, until someone stops the corporate greed machine in this country.
