CBC Mid-Season Shows and Ratings

BBM / Nielsen is yet to issue the weekly report for the week of December 24-30. Regardless, taking into consideration the fact that CBC's mid-season premieres will probably not make it to the weekly top-ten television ratings chart, it is worth mentioning them today. In an attempt to bring new life to its screen, the public broadcaster introduced four new fictions to its prime-time schedule throughout this week. Fortunately for the Canadian television industry, all of them had a relatively successful beginning, as far as mass appeal is concerned. But, were they successful in terms of storytelling and originality? We watched them and the results are in.

The Border (Mondays, 9pm)
The Border is an unfortunate miss. Put in lighter terms, the premiere showed, at least, a complete lack of originality in terms of story, characters and cinematography. Characters are bidimensional and shallow. Their differential traits include superficial actions such as being a constant chewer or a never-smiler. The more promising plot lines criticizing U.S.-Canada relationships were virtually unexplored. Although previous show that this will be an essential part of the drama, it will simply arrive one episode too late. The jerky camera movement, reminiscent of other crime/police shows like 24, is at least, unoriginal and distracting. Random visually pleasing shots were seen throughout, nevertheless. Sound mixing is irritating, and parts of the dialogue are virtually inaudible, literally...
Premiere Rating: 710,000 viewers.
Second Episode Forecast: Shabby. Unlikely to increase its appeal. Likely to lose a couple dozen-thousand viewers, at least.

jPod (Tuesdays, 9pm)
The show is certainly original and it does have its funny moments. jPod's characters range from shallow to incredibly smart and entertaining and some of the performances are brilliant. As much as I would have appreciated a near-perfect show for this book's TV adaptation, it was far from excellence. While some moments flow in very natural ways, many others seem forced. The quality of writing is, admittedly, weak at some points. Overall, I enjoyed watching it and I appreciate the risk CBC is taking by putting this on the air.
Premiere Rating: 472,000 viewers.
Second Episode Forecast: It is hard to predict. CBC is uploading episodes of MVP and The Border to their respective websites, but not jPod's, which may potentially reduce its chances of appealing to a young cult following. Ratings are likely to remain within the 400,000's.

Sophie (Wednesdays, 8:30pm)
Oh... Sophie... What can I say? Forced comedy can be irritating. Sophie had several forced moments. Therefore, Sophie was irritating at several points during the premiere. I had high expectations for this one and they were only barely satisfied. Usually, high expectations mean there is a likeliness for something to be good. Sophie's world is one in which so much can be explored and elaborated upon, one in which a great deal of potential can be found. Very little of that was shown, and something that should have been comedic felt tragic. It is hard to care for her so early in the comedy. As a comparison, one of U.S. greatest sitcoms Friends begins with relatively tragic plot lines. You may remember Rachel running away from her wedding and Ross being left by his wife. Despite the tears, the episode is, overall, funny. Sophie has the potential but lacks the funny.
Premiere Rating: 630,000 viewers.
Second Episode Forecast: Part of the audience may have been dragged from Little Mosque on the Prairie (CBC, Wednesday 8pm), which drew a remarkable 840,000 viewers. I don't think all the opportunities for the audience to grow were already exhausted. It is possible, although unlikely. Ratings should be in the higher 500,000's half.

MVP (Friday, 9pm)
MVP was surprisingly simply brilliant. There is little left to say other than 'visit their website and watch the premiere episode if you have missed it.' Filled with good TV moments and a small Canadian town appealing plot-line, MVP is, without any doubt, CBC's strongest mid-season bid. This is the only one that left me wanting more.
Premiere Ratings: Not available until Tuesday. (UPDATE: Refer to this post for MVP's premiere ratings)
Second Episode Forecast: Hard to predict without the premiere numbers...

What did you think of the shows? Leave us your comments and enjoy the mid-season...