A solution to the Hollywood writers’ strike may have finally emerged, but it’s not a settlement.
As the strike drags on American television networks may start looking to Canadian shows to fill the void. Already the television network CBS has announced it ordered 13 episodes of the Canadian-made program “Flashpoint,” a CTV police drama.
The decision by CBS comes as America’s entertainment industry continues to grapple with a marketplace thirsty for new and interesting content.
The idea that television stations may be able to ride out the strike with no major decline in viewers has been debunked by the latest ratings, especially for the usually highly anticipated award shows.
With Hollywood writers on strike many celebrities have said they will stay away from glitzy award shows to avoid the prospect of having to cross picket lines.
In response, the Golden Globes cancelled their live broadcast and instead held a news conference to announce the winners. The one-hour event was the lowest rated Golden Globes broadcast in 13 years, with ratings down 71 per cent from last year.
Meanwhile, the People’s Choice Awards that aired in early January also saw ratings plummet. The two-hour taped program was watched by six million viewers compared with the 11.3 million who watched last year, according to Nielsen Media Research figures.
Now the much-hyped Academy Awards red-carpet ceremony, scheduled for Feb. 24, is in danger of being cancelled.
The Writers Guild of America has been on strike for several months and while the scribes patrol the picket lines, an opportunity seems to have emerged for Canada’s long overshadowed entertainment industry.
Canadian talent has usually been unable or unwilling to seize the spotlight.
Instead actors and producers in Canada have taken a more modest and humble approach to their craft.
Often times Canadians look at the farcical media coverage of celebrities in the United States and chuckle. But maybe we shouldn’t be laughing.
“Celebrity is what fuels culture. It seems like only in English Canada do we have this bizarre idea that politicians are heroes and actors are bums,” says Brian Gorman, who teaches arts reporting at Carleton University.
Gorman, who covers Canadian television for TVData Ltd. a division of the Chicago-based Tribune Media, says celebrity culture helps a country’s economy by creating jobs and increasing spending habits.
Gorman says the writers’ strike, while devastating for television stations in the United States, actually offers Canadian programming a chance to flourish.
“If you look at the ratings, Canadian shows are doing very well since the strike began,” says Gorman. “There are a million people tuning into “The Border” and other CBC shows are thriving.”But the knock against Canadian shows has always been that it is an inferior product.
Gorman says this is untrue.
“That’s bullshit. If we weren’t interested in Canadian culture they wouldn’t be listening to Canadian music and watching Peter Mansbridge and other Canadian newscasts.”
Gorman blames the Canadian media for creating the false perception that homegrown content is no good.
“We have a media that assumes everything Canadian is crap. We have rumpled, old editors who haven’t been out at night in 20 years,” says Gorman, who cites Ottawa Citizen TV guide covers, which usually feature American shows rather than Canadian ones, as one noteworthy culprit.
However, the tide may be turning.
If the writers’ strike keeps going Canadian content might take hold both at home and abroad. Gorman says Americans and the global community have long embraced Canadian cultural content.
“Twitch City is a show created in Canada, which has become a big hit in the U.S.,” says Gorman.
“Red Green could probably get elected governor of Iowa. His show is very popular in the Midwest.”
Gorman passionately rhymes off a list of other worthy Canadian creations and says citizens need to simply give the products a chance.
Once they do, they will fall in love with the content and by extension the actors.
Soon Canada will have its own celebrity culture and some silly writers’ strike down south will be a simple nuisance and not a major distraction.
Gorman says there is precedence for such a movement. In the early 1970s the writers at the major newspaper in Quebec, La Presse, had a strike of their own.
Before it was settled a new newspaper, Le Journal de Montréal, was created and based on a more populist message.
Today Le Journal de Montréal is the largest French-language newspaper in circulation in North America.
“This could be our La Presse situation,” Gorman says.
It might seem like an overly optimistic view, but as the Hollywood writers’ strike continues the likelihood the moment will provide a major cultural boost for Canada grows.
While viewers might turn off from the usual winter fare south of the border, the real winner this awards show season might just be Canadian cultural content.