CBC taking back Canadian viewers?

Maybe it is just me but I have found that lately the CBC has been putting a lot of quality TV out that appears to be getting more and more viewers. I think it all started in the fall with such shows as The Greatest Canadian, Making the Cut and the continuation of Monday Report. While I didn’t catch much of The Greatest Canadian when it first aired I did manage to watch the entire thing on DVD this Christmas and found the show to be not only exceptionally well done but a great builder of pride for this country. Personally I could see them doing a spin-off show having more celebrities showcase great Canadians. As for Making the Cut while it could have spent more time on hockey action it was still fun to get inside real NHL coaches and scouts heads as well it provided a bit of a fix for the no hockey blues. Monday Report while it is a definitely a watered down Rick Mercer, it is still quite funny, and seeing Pierre Burton roll a joint was priceless.

This Monday CBC showcased two new shows that I thought were both worthy of mention. The first called The Tournament is a fake-documentary about several different hockey families. The show is focused around several hockey parents; you know the type, forcing their dream of the NHL into their children, living their lives through their child. When the dad took over as coach was pretty hilarious, “Alright everyone do what has been working all year, pass the puck to my son!”

The second show was called Walter Ego and features Peter Keleghan who you might remember from Made in Canada or The Newsroom. Anyway Peter plays a cartoonist who gets his inspiration from his interesting friends and crazy family. I enjoyed the first show, hopefully CBC will pick it up for fulltime.

There is no reason why Canadian TV shows have to be crap and I think the CBC is showing that it can make shows just as good as our neighbors to the south. I think the lineup for CBC is getting stronger and stronger and once HNIC is back things will only be that much better.