MVP: Most Vindicated Player?

Back in January, I blogged here about the new hockey soap MVP, having done a little work on the pilot a year prior. I called it "big, stupid, nasty, trashy fun", and wondered if the CBC could handle such a show.

Of course, we know now that it couldn't. As usually happens, there was some initial interest, then the CBC kinda flailed. In this case, they made their valiant attempt at promoting it, then slacked a bit and eventually switched it on the schedule with fellow new series jPod without telling many people, leading to the demise of both shows.

Now there's news that MVP has been picked up by a channel in the U.S. that knows exactly how to handle bigstupidnastytrashyfun shows: SOAPNet. A popular digital channel, SOAPNet is best known for helping non-TiVo-owning soap fans who aren't able to tune into their favourite daytime drama, giving them the chance to catch up at night or on the weekend. A few years ago, they started developing more original shows, like the magazine/talk show Soap Talk and the reality show I Wanna Be a Soap Star, and last summer they tried their own soap with the General Hospital spinoff Night Shift, which pulled down 1 million viewers in its limited run. Now, they have MVP, which starts in mid-June.

Here's the link to the Hollywood Reporter's take on the story, which quotes a Disney-ABC (who runs the channel) boss, Brian Frons, as saying, "This is the first time we are going to have a primetime soap with real primetime production values" (they do have reruns of primetime fare like The O.C. and One Tree Hill).

"We're broadening our reach by investing more in original programming," Frons said, adding that "MVP" has "five to six times" the budget of "Night Shift."

Here's the link to the Globe and Mail's take on the story, which also includes that same boss, as well as a very happy and not-smug MVP co-creator Mary Young Leckie:

What this means is we've got a new launch - as an original series - in the States. ABC is taking the cast around to do a number of promotions, as well as the talk-show circuit...If it's successful for ABC, it could leave the door open to a second season.

That could mean a second season also for a possibly-contrite CBC, who still has the Canadian rights to the show - and will be re-airing the first season around the same time it makes its American bow. Will MVP be truly vindicated, or just another Falcon Beach? Is it a coincidence that SOAPNet is owned by the same mega-corp who owns ABC Family, the U.S. digital channel that picked up CBC ratings winner Sophie recently (and a couple years ago, picked up Falcon Beach)? And whither jPod? Stay tuned, as the twists and turns might prove as interesting as finding out if Damon and Mandy escape from the car that crashed into the lake.

(Thanks to Inside the CBC for the tip.)

Just For Laughs, Indeed

If someone told you the American network ABC had just announced one of its upcoming midseason series (what replaces the crap in the fall) would be the original version of a Canadian series (a pretty historic thing), could you guess that Canadian series?

Degrassi? Already a big hit on digital - which does kinda mean something there.

Trailer Park Boys? Dude, ABC is a major US network - no swearing and drinking in your car. The closest they'll get to that is My Name Is Earl while the Boys romp around on BBC America for some reason.

Maybe King of Kensington? Oops, already remade unofficially as King of Queens, though admittedly both are part of the Honeymooners tradition.

Cold Squad? Oh, yeah, they already remade that...unofficially again.

Got your liberal fingers crossed for Little Mosque on the Prairie? Sorry, though we can content ourselves on France's Canal+ picking it up.

Canadian Idol? Just kidding.

No, ABC will be airing Just For Laughs Gags.

Yes, that show the CBC runs when they don't have anything else and feel like having big ratings once in a while. That show you see sometimes after your in-flight movie. I'm guessing an ABC exec saw it there.

Okay, so Gags is hardly an original concept. The hidden (ahem, "candid") camera prank show has been around for longer than most of us have been alive. But the Just For Laughs kids in Montreal refined this idea to its most simple, almost elegant (!) form, and this is partially why it's been wildly successful around the world. Nobody talks, there are no smarmy hosts saying "we took our cameras to such-and-such a place, and you wouldn't belieeeeve what happened! Let's take a look!" No, they just show the setup and let 'er rip. Comedy gold. (Well, for some, at least.) And somehow it doesn't seem as mean-spirited as many of these kind of shows. Ordinary people react to extraordinary situations and that's it, sometimes with shots of the folks laughing at the end. That said, I'm not a big fan of the show. Is anyone, really? It's hard to either love it or hate it. It's just there.

Another series that you could neither love nor hate? That was just there? Whose Line Is It Anyway. The US version of that British show (of course with two Canadian stars, Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles) was a massive hit for ABC that made them tons of money and ran for ages. But it didn't just do that because it was generally funny (sometimes very funny) and fairly likable, but because it was CHEAP! Improv people, bare stage, studio audience, done. With Gags, they don't even need the audience or stage or improv-trained union talent! You couldn't make a cheaper show with cardboard and bailing twine! I think that's the main reason ABC is taking a run at this show. Since they finally canceled Whose Line, they soon missed having a little-show-that-could to get them huge ratings value for a tiny budget, and Gags just might fill that slot - and the time slots of those expensive but ill-conceived and stupid shows that will be dead by maybe October.

So bonne chance, Juste Pour Rire! And you guys at APTN who came up with Bingo and a Movie? How closely are you watching what ABC comes up with for their National Bingo Night tomorrow?