Blades, brooms and Dragons
Flush from a successful past season, CBC Television unveiled a fall schedule yesterday that is padded with returning favourites such as Dragons’ Den and Battle of the Blades, the reality show that pairs former NHLers with figure skaters and has already signed up Theo Fleury, the feisty forward with the Calgary Flames, to don a pair of figure skates in season two.
In a splashy presentation in the 10th floor studio of CBC’s Toronto headquarters, Kirstine Stewart, general manager of CBC Television, said that additions to her 2010-2011 roster include a new reality show that celebrates unsung heroes starring Debbie Travis, and a half-hour sitcom based on the 2002 film Men With Brooms, starring Paul Gross.
Stewart told the crowd her goal in the upcoming season is to build on the ratings momentum of the prior year. “Now that we’ve built a good relationship with our audience, it’s time to take it further,” she said, noting that CBC regularly drew one-million-plus weekly viewers for The Rick Mercer Report, Hockey Night in Canada, Dragons’ Den and Battle of the Blades.
Also returning to CBC’s prime-time schedule is the Alberta-based drama Heartland (which had a weekly audience of about 992,000 viewers), Little Mosque on the Prairie and Being Erica.
Yesterday, the broadcaster trotted out its stars, including news anchor Peter Mansbridge, Travis (whose reality show will travel to urban and rural communities across Canada), Erin Karpluk (Being Erica) and Paul Gross, whose half-hour comedy will air in September on Monday nights at 8:30 p.m., just after the Battle of the Blades results show.
In an interview after the upfront presentation, Gross said he had an eerie sense of déjà-vu walking back into the curling rink outside Hamilton, where production soon begins on the 13-episode Men in Brooms. “When I first went back into the curling rink, I got this Pavlovian reaction, and I thought, God I’m exhausted ... because that’s how I felt making the movie most of the time. I was exhausted,” Gross added. “But the series has a lovely sort of charm. I thought the pilot was fantastic and the script was really funny. Funnier, actually, than the movie in parts.”
The comedy, executive produced and written by Paul Mather, picks up the story of four small-town curling chums after they won the championship years earlier. Gross will narrate the series and make several guest appearances as a wise-cracking mentor figure.
Fleury, who now lives in Los Angeles, told the crowd he sought counsel with some of his NHL buddies before accepting the Battle of the Blades challenge. “I went to Wayne [Gretzky] and he told me you absolutely have to do this. So I got a ringing endorsement from the Great One. But I am terrified of the toe pick.”
Fleury co-wrote his autobiography, Playing with Fire, which alleged he was sexually abused by Junior A coach Graham James, recently pardoned and now living in Mexico. He blamed the abuse for turning him into a “raging, alcoholic lunatic.” Fleury quit drugs and drinking five years
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