The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing (February 4-20) will interrupt a really nice CBC winter schedule. The NHL runs until the end of April as opposed to the traditional early April end of the season.
New shows of note include the Mark Critch vehicle Son Of A Critch following his day job on Tuesday nights. Run The Burbs, the true spirit of Kim's Convenience, airs after Still Standing on Wednesdays. The Porter debuts after Murdoch Mysteries once the Olympics are done.
Winter returns include Workin' Moms and Tallboyz back to back on Tuesdays; Pretty Hard Cases on Wednesdays; Coroner on Thursdays; and Arctic Vets after Marketplace on Fridays.
The CBC will run Canadian documentaries on Sunday nights under the name Hot Docs.
CBC Winter 2022
Monday
Murdoch Mysteries 8p
The Witness For The Prosecution/The Porter 9p
Tuesday
This Hour Has 22 Minutes 8p
Son Of A Critch 8:30p
Workin' Moms 9p
Tallboyz 9:30p
Wednesday
Still Standing 8p
Run The Burbs 8:30p
Pretty Hard Cases 9p
Thursday
Coroner 8p
The Fifth Estate 9p
Friday
Marketplace 8p
Arctic Vets 8:30p
The Nature of Things 9p
Saturday
Hockey Night in Canada 7p
Sunday
All Creatures Great And Small 7p
Hot Docs 8p
bold indicates new series; ital indicates new timeslot
The Porter is a CBC/BET+ co-production so this program should end up on both sides of the border. The show is set mostly in Montréal, Chicago, and Detroit at a time "when railway workers from both Canada and the United States joined together to give birth to the world’s first Black union." The program focuses on the Black community in St. Antoine in Montréal known as the "Harlem of the North."
2021 Canadian TV upfronts highlights
Son of a Critch has a deal with Lionsgate for U.S. and international distribution rights. The program is based on the memoir, Son of a Critch: A Childish Newfoundland Memoir. Critch plays his own father on the show.
2021 CBC television upfront preview
As we noted in September, Season 6 of Workin' Moms will be without Juno Rinaldi, as real estate agent Frankie Coyne, who left the show. There are other characters in Frankie's world so we are a bit curious how that will be resolved.
The first 5 seasons are available on CBC Gem (Canada) and Netflix (United States).
2021 CBC television fall preview
Season 1 of Pretty Hard Cases aired on IMDb TV in the United States. The continuity of the same case throughout Season 2 will be challenged by the interruption in February with the Olympics. There will be 12 episodes in Season 2, up from 10 episodes in Season 1.
The show is adding 3 new Canadian actors: Sonja Smits, K.C. Collins, and Ben Bass. Though Katie Douglas' character was involved in the criminality of Season 1, she is returning for Season 2.
UK readers (hope there are some) will be glad to know Season 1 is coming to the Alibi Channel on 19 January at 9 pm GMT.
CanadianCrossing.com Canadian TV coverage
Still Standing would seem to suffer with a pandemic but credit is due that the show keeps going. Unlike Hometown Hockey, the Still Standing map is more spread out. Some of the stops listed are Minden, ON; Hope, BC; Wakefield, QC; Middleton, NS; and St. Laurent, MB.
Nicholas Campbell, Wendy Mesley, and others: Just stop using the n-word
The CBC released the titles for the documentaries on Sunday nights (Director in parentheses):
- January 2 Dead Man's Switch: A Crypto Mystery (Sheona Mcdonald)
- January 9 Portrayal (Billie Mintz)
- January 16 Hell Or Clean Water (Cody Westman)
- January 23 One Of Ours (Yasmine Mathurin)
- January 30 The Gig Is Up: A Very Human Tech Story (Shannon Walsh)
Other titles will run after the Olympics. We know this may not be the most exciting entertainment out there but unlike British seat fillers, these are Canadian stories in Canada told by Canadians.
Canadian TV notebook: Sort Of makes its CBC television debut
Sort Of has been a pleasant surprise. The show is available on HBO Max (United States) and CBC Gem (Canada). Don't let any prejudice throw you off from seeing the show. There are plenty of warnings upfront and you would have to decide about small children watching. Still, if you are an adult, the show is well written and funny and sweet.
Happy Holidays 2021 includes Season 10 of Letterkenny
CanadianCrossing.com television coverage
CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage
While this is a CBC schedule update, we also include news from other Canadian TV shows on U.S. television.
Season 2 of Transplant starts Monday on CTV at 10 pm Eastern. There will be 13 episodes of the Best Drama Series as determined by the Canadian Screen Awards. There is even a French translation of the show coming to Noovo next year.
NBC will carry Season 2 though not this winter. You might recall that Season 1 of the show aired on CTV before NBC carried the program in the United States.
Children Ruin Everything will run on CTV on Wednesdays at 8 pm starting January 12. Meaghan Rath and Aaron Abrams play the parents. Some of the actors playing characters in their lives are Ennis Esmer, Nazneen Contractor, Dmitry Chepovetsky, Veena Sood, and Lisa Codrington.
Season 2 of Nurses ran on Global in the summer of 2021 so the call is on NBC as to whether to pick up new episodes. The controversy over a Season 1 episode might give cold feet to the U.S. network. We rarely use the word "controversy" so we believe that was a controversial episode, as in the completely wrong presentation of Judaism practices. Nurses is not on the NBC winter schedule.
Like CBC, the NBC winter schedule also deals with the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Season 3 of Diggstown ran this fall on CBC. Fox announced back on January 26 that the U.S. network would pick up Seasons 1-2. Still waiting for an announcement.
In Canadian-related TV news, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee is moving to Thursdays in January on TBS in the United States and the CTV Comedy Channel in Canada. The show earlier this month hit 200 episodes and has been on since February 2016. Fellow Canadian Allana Harkin is a reporter and producer on the show. The show returns January 20 at its regular time of 10:30 pm Eastern.
As it stands right now, our biggest native show was trickster, and they cancelled it because of one person. That show was rhymes for young ghouls light I could've taken it over with my eyes closed. But they didn't even try.
— Jeff Barnaby (@tripgore) December 16, 2021
Even as a white male of a certain age, I would have loved to see a Jeff Barnaby version of Trickster. Remember, the CBC had approved a Season 2. The CW would more than likely be up for a Season 2.
Season 1 of Trickster was one of the best TV experiences of 2021 for your humble narrator. Those stories need to be told.
photos credit: Run The Burbs; The Porter/CBC; Hockey Night in Canada/Rogers Sportsnet (x2)
Twitter capture: @tripgore
Comments