‘Wizard of Oz’ reality show, Titanic miniseries on tap at CBC-TV

TORONTO – The beleaguered CBC officially announced its upcoming fall and winter lineup with a splashy hour-long presentation Thursday that celebrated its uniquely Canadian perspective with testimonials from hockey great Wayne Gretzky, musician Jim Cuddy and theatre impresario David Mirvish.

The celebs were part of a video salute to the public broadcaster that aired on massive screens while CBC personalities, including George Stroumboulopoulos, Jian Ghomeshi, Kevin O’Leary and Adam Beach, took the stage to tout recent ratings triumphs.

Deep budget cuts have forced the network to shave 175 hours of original programming, but CBC boss Kirstine Stewart promised to do more with less.

“I challenge anybody to find the kind of programming that we do on any other network, particularly all of it on one network,” said Stewart, executive vice-president of CBC English Services.

“I think that’s our focus and making sure that despite the cuts and the less resources that we’re dealing with that we really show that variety and that menu of programming that Canadians expect from their public broadcaster. That’s really important and we’re not about to be a niche service. We are here to serve Canadians.”

Most of the CBC’s upcoming schedule has already been announced.

It includes an hour-long winter crime drama called “Cracked,” a fall reality show to find stars for a stage production of “The Wizard of Oz” and an eight-part Titanic miniseries starring Neve Campbell, Kevin Zegers and Chris Noth.

Returning shows include the fall series “Dragons’ Den” and “Heartland,” and the hits “Arctic Air,” “Mr. D” and “Republic of Doyle,” which return to air in January.

But cuts include a shortened “George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight,” which will be a half-hour show instead of an hour-long broadcast. It will be followed by long-running British soap “Coronation Street.”

Strombo’s retooled program is also moving to 7 p.m. from late night, and will repeat at 11:30 p.m. after an extended local newscast.

The earlier slot puts CBC’s chat show up against CTV’s “eTalk” and Global’s “Entertainment Tonight,” said Stewart.

It also positions it as one of the lead-ins for CBC’s prime-time schedule, a job previously held by long-contentious U.S. game shows “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!”

Stewart noted the imports were no longer needed to bolster the fortunes of homegrown series, pointing to several CBC programs that have notched million-plus viewers.

They include the classroom comedy “Mr. D,” starring teacher-turned-stand-up-star Gerry Dee as a bumbling instructor. Dee admitted to feeling pressure to keep viewers plugged into the CBC lineup.

“(But) that’s the position you want to be in … we’re still playing, we’re lucky to be here,” said Dee, noting that a lot of other acclaimed series were axed.

“They had some tough decisions to make and they didn’t want to make those decisions, but they had to.”

Earlier this year, the federal government said it was slashing about 10 per cent of CBC’s funding over the next three years, amounting to about $115 million.

The network then revealed it planned to shelve “Battle of the Blades,” “Redemption Inc.,” “Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays” and “Being Erica” to cope.

Acknowledging critics who suggest the CBC has lost direction, Dee said it’s impossible to please everybody.

“It’s the nature of success (and) CBC has been successful for many, many years,” he said.

“That’s just the nature of society; that’s never going away.”

Several CBC stalwarts will be marking milestones next season: “Hockey Night in Canada” is set to celebrate its 60th anniversary; “Marketplace” will have its 40th birthday; “22 Minutes” will toast 20 years; and “The Rick Mercer Report” will turn 10.

Stewart said the network is focusing its efforts on offering a distinctive lineup. She dismissed criticism that the CBC has lost direction as unfair.

“When people want to take potshots at the idea that somehow programming isn’t good enough, that’s a lot of different talented people that we have here at the CBC,” she said, calling the criticism “self-serving.”

She said people say the winter schedule had more Canadian hits than any other schedule CBC has had in history.

“People forget it wasn’t that long ago that CBC was airing ‘Dallas’ and ‘Mork & Mindy.’ There were a lot of shows that we now have excised from the schedule (and go) Canadian all the time and that’s what makes us distinctive,” she said.

“It’s fine to say: ‘Why is CBC like other broadcasters?’ if we were also showing the kinds of shows we used to do 25 years ago, but we don’t. We’re showing all-Canadian all the time, and showing parts of Canada that people can’t see and enjoy unless the CBC is there.”