MVP heads to U.S. after a short run on CBC
Fri, June 20, 2008
The night time soap's first season was bought by an ABC cable network
after few Canadian viewers tuned in
A "gotcha" mentality has crept into most conversations about MVP, the
cancelled CBC series that was mostly filmed in London.
It gets a crack on ABC tonight.
Even though this will make us even more unpopular among our
colleagues, we have to defend CBC on this one.
People love to debate whether CBC should exist at all, but for the
sake of this column, we accept that we live in a world where CBC does
exist. The public broadcaster put a lot of money into a big publicity
campaign for its ***y dramatic series MVP -- a.k.a. The Secret Lives
of Hockey Wives -- when it launched early this year.
Despite that publicity push, CBC saddled MVP with a horrible time slot
on Friday nights, second only to Saturday nights as the black hole for
TV programming.
This is not something that became apparent in hindsight, by the way.
In our initial review of MVP, way back in January, we wondered about
the wisdom of placing a show aimed at young adults on Friday evenings,
when young adults are out at clubs looking for their own MVPs.
The ratings for MVP were horrible. Eventually CBC moved MVP to
Tuesdays -- swapping places with another struggling show, jPod -- but
the switch didn't help.
So, CBC had some tough choices to make this spring. Of its four high-
profile January launches, it ended up renewing the two shows that were
doing fairly well (Sophie, The Border) and axing the two shows that
weren't doing well (jPod, MVP).
Can you imagine the hue and cry had CBC actually renewed the low-rated
MVP? Wasted taxpayer money, and all that. At the very least, CBC
would've been accused of brazenly trying to justify its expensive ad
campaign.
We're pretty sure CBC didn't want MVP to fail, bad time slot
notwithstanding. But Canadians simply weren't watching it. Any other
network might have received compliments for having the guts to pull
the plug.
But often CBC is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. Sometimes
it puts itself in that position. In this case, what was the network
supposed to do?
What happened next was the writers-strike-impacted and programming-
starved U.S. cable network known as SOAPnet (owned by ABC) purchased
the rights to the first season of MVP.
Suddenly, the Canadian contingent that is obsessed with American
approval started lauding MVP as some sort of lost gem that CBC failed
to recognize, a combination of Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210
and Grey's Anatomy and Brothers & Sisters, rolled into one.
How could CBC have missed the brilliance of MVP? And that rhetoric got
even louder when it was announced that ABC would give MVP a trial run
tonight, following the primetime showing of the Daytime Emmy Awards.
We guess we'd make this observation: CBC did not reject MVP; Canadian
viewers did.
Our feelings about MVP were stated openly from the start: While we
admired some of the young actors (especially Kristin Booth, Dillon
Casey and Charlotte Sullivan), we thought the stories were goofy. And
the decision by the creators to assume that Canadians wouldn't mind
shoddy hockey details, because MVP wasn't really about hockey per se,
was like sticking your face in front of an oncoming slapshot.
An American audience will be more forgiving with regard to the hockey
elements. The reverse would be true with a TV series about basketball
or college football. So, who knows, maybe a certain segment of
Americans will take MVP the way it was intended, as a primetime soap
opera.
But as much as some people would like to see it this way, all of this
does not add up to, "Gotcha, CBC!"
How could it be that the audience is always right, but CBC is always
wrong? If Canadians had thought MVP was good, they would have voted
with their clickers.
MVP IN LONDON CHRONOLOGY
July 2, 2007: Screen Door Productions begins filming MVP in London.
The cast numbers about 100. The show co-creator Mary Young Leckie
promises it will be fun for the city.
June 24: Producers hold a casting call at the London Convention Centre
for extras needed for the series. Those auditioning are asked to bring
a recent photo of themselves.
Dec. 26: Young Leckie tells The Free Press the show's producers were
thrilled with the reception they received in London. She mentioned
good shopping and good restaurants, among other highlights.
Early January 2008: The NHL demands a screening of the show to ensure
it doesn't besmirch the league's reputation. After viewing the show,
the NHL gives MVP its blessing.
Jan. 11: MVP debuts on CBC. Some London locales are spotted, but the
CN Tower is also shown and there is no reference to London.
March 11: The last episode of MVP airs on CBC, which announced it has
cancelled the show after 10 episodes. It cost about $1.5 million per
show to produce.
June 19: MVP premieres on the U.S. pay channel SoapNet. The first
season of the show has been purchased by the channel.
June 20: MVP's first episode will air on ABC tonight at 10 p.m.
following the live broadcast of the daytime Emmy Awards.
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