Monday
Murdoch Mysteries 8p
Alias Grace/Frankie Drake 9p
Tuesday
Rick Mercer Report 8p
This Hour Has 22 Minutes 8:30p
Kim's Convenience 9p
Mr. D 9:30p
Wednesday
The Great Canadian Baking Show 8p
The Durrells/Top of the Lake: China Girl 9p
Thursday
Dragons' Den 8p
The Detectives 9p
Friday
Marketplace 8p
Interrupt This Program/The Stats of Life 8:30p
The Fifth Estate 9p
Saturday
Hockey Night in Canada 7p
Sunday
Heartland 7p
The Nature of Things 8p
Firsthand 9p
bold indicates new series; ital indicates new timeslot
The rhythm of the CBC schedule is slightly askew for the new fall season. CBC is moving its documentary night from Thursdays to Sundays following Heartland. Dragons' Den will anchor a Thursday night lineup as the CBC will have reality shows start out both Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Alias Grace (picture above) is the highly anticipated 6-hour miniseries from Sarah Polley based on the Margaret Atwood novel. The show follows Murdoch Mysteries and gets an early debut of September 25. The show will eventually be on Netflix in the same spirit of Anne with an E.
Frankie Drake follows Lauren Lee Smith as Toronto’s only female private detective in the 1920s in the late Monday slot after the run of Alias Grace. Chantal Riley also stars in the drama.
The Detectives follows Dragons' Den on Thursday nights. The show combines true crime from real cases of Canadian detectives with first-person interviews and scripted drama.
Interrupt This Program runs in the post-Marketplace slot on Friday nights along with a limited run of The Stats of Life, a reality series on how Canadians are living today based on recent population statistics.
The Great Canadian Baking Show, the Canadian version of The Great British Baking Show, will kick off the Wednesday night lineup. Looking forward to seeing lots of butter tarts.
The Tuesday night comedies remain the same with a new season of Kim's Convenience and Mr. D to go along with the Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Murdoch Mysteries, Heartland, Marketplace, and the fifth estate all resume their regular timeslots.
The late Wednesday slot will be shared by a pair of British dramas. The Durrells is about a English family leaving home for adventures on a Greek island. Top of the Lake: China Girl is the latest incarnation of the popular series with Elisabeth Moss along with Nicole Kidman and Gwendoline Christie.
Anne with an E makes Netflix debut
CBC announces 2016 fall schedule
We Are Canada and Canada: The Story of Us were likely the canary in the coal mine for moving documentary shows to Sunday nights. CBC management is hoping viewers respond quickly to the changes in the fall.
The Monday night new dramas look quite interesting and offer a lot of promise. The question about The Detectives is whether the show is a single-time shot or trying to develop this into something more.
Instead of Canadians skating or showing their smarts, they'll be baking this fall. The original British version is quite popular with the CBC audience. We were joking about the butter tarts but showing off distinctly Canadian dishes would be whipped cream on top of a reality show.
We are partial to Canadian comedy, but unless you laugh at amateur bakers, your funny bone will only be tripped on Tuesday nights.
The pair of British dramas is a disappointment to showing more Canadian content. If CBC went commercial-free, would there be less pressure to have British shows. If the CBC had a cable channel, the British dramas would be perfect to add programming to that channel.
CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage
The winter schedule offers some logistical concerns with the 2018 Winter Olympics from Pyeongchang, South Korea running February 9-25. Still, there are some promising programming come winter.
Crawford is an unconventional family comedy with great potential with the likes of Jill Hennessy, John Carroll Lynch, and Kyle Mac. Allan Hawco is back with Caught, an adaptation of the Lisa Moore novel. Joel Thomas Hynes is a Newfoundland boxer looking for redemption in Little Dog.
CanadianCrossing.com television coverage
We got official word of a few cancellations: Michael: Every Day, This Life, The Romeo Section, and Four in the Morning. Given the delays in bringing Michael: Every Day back to the screen, we aren't surprised. This Life never got the buzz or ratings of the French version; English Canadians likely wouldn't watch the French version with subtitles. Four in the Morning seemed like a promising show, even if just for the summer.
photo credit: Alias Grace/CBC
Comments