Rogers Media will line up behind NBC this fall in hope of grabbing prime-time audience share from rivals CTV and Global Television.
‘We’re competitive with Global and hopefully with CTV on some levels,’ says Malcolm Dunlop, Rogers Media EVP of programming, as he readied to unveil Citytv’s 2009/10 schedule on Monday.
Rogers earlier acquired NBC’s The Jay Leno Show to program the treacherous weeknights 10 pm slot all in one go. And to get deeper still into the simulcast game, at last week’s Los Angeles screenings Dunlop picked up the NBC Universal titles Mercy, Trauma, Parenthood and the sitcom 100 Questions.
Through a series of side-deals with rivals CTV and Canwest Global, Rogers has also acquired much of NBC’s Thursday night comedy lineup. This now includes the fall sitcom Community at 8 pm, the Amy Poehler-starrer Parks and Recreation returning at 8:30 pm and 30 Rock at 9:30 pm.
‘NBC is onto something. They have strong shows in there; they have intelligent shows,’ Dunlop said, hoping the Peacock Network will repeat its sitcom successes of the 1990s, seen here on Global, with Thursday night laughers like Seinfeld, Friends and Frasier.
He adds Rogers also bought rival studio product at the Screenings from Disney/ABC, Sony and CBS Studios as Citytv goes toe-to-toe with CTV and Canwest Global beginning this fall.
But it’s shows picked up from the off-loading E! and A stations that supply key building blocks for Dunlop’s fall and mid-season schedules.
From E!, Rogers grabbed Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Better Off Ted, How I Met Your Mother and The Biggest Loser, while the A channels gave up Supernanny.
‘We wanted shows with recognizable star power, and we were able to get some high-rated reality TV shows that had consistent numbers,’ Dunlop explains.
New Canadian series at City include the design reality show My Rona Home; the four-part competition Ford Models Supermodel of the World Canada and Conviction Kitchen, a Cineflix series that challenges Toronto chef Marc Thuet to train a staff of ex-convicts to turn their lives around and his newest restaurant to turn a profit.
From Playback Daily
