CTV Announces 2019 Midseason Schedule

[InMontreal]

CBS has released their season finale dates today and Magnum ends on April 1st. According to Futon Critic is has only 20 episodes.

Yup, The Futon displayed 22 episodes yesterday when I wrote the above message, they updated it after CBS' press release.

Looks like Deadline has the right number back in october, while we assumed it was the standard 22 episodes :

CBS has handed back orders to three more freshman series, multi-camera comedy The Neighborhood and dramas Magnum P.I. and God Friended Me. The sizes of the pickups are not being revealed, but I hear that The Neighborhood‘s order is around nine episodes, which would bring its first season to a 22, and Magnum P.I. and God Friended Me have received pickups for about seven more episodes.

https://deadline.com/2018/10/the-nei...bs-1202485957/

[InMontreal]

The Village, now begins its run on Tuesday, March 19, where it will air for its first three weeks at 7:00pm in pre-release, until This Is Us finishes out its run for the season and then moves into its timeslot starting April 9.

I expected ABC to give a break to Rookie (for a 10pm Village simsub opportunity), but there's obviously three new Rookie episodes during those 3 weeks (#16 to #18, out of a 20 eps order).

Anyway... it premieres at 7pm.

I also compared NBC's Enemy Within (13 eps) and ABC's The Fix (10 eps), both mondays at 10pm, both season finales are projected for May 20th without any obvious pre-emption. As always, ratings and advertisers money could prompt CTV to swap slots for those shows.

[InMontreal]

There was new episodes of ABC's American Housewife and Kids are Alright last tuesday, March 26, those shows usually air fridays at 9pm and 9:30pm respectively on CTV. I'm positive those shows were there a few days ago.
For tonight, CTV opted for a shelf Goldbergs at 8pm (NBC has a 2-hours Blacklist, pre-empting Blindspot), followed by 1.5 hours of their beloved TBBT, and since CBS has basketball tonight, a Criminal Minds filler will take the 10pm slot. So, where the sitcoms go ?

Edit : ABC has random reruns on tue Apr 2nd, and new episodes of AH & TKAA scheduled on Apr 9... and on fri Apr 12, still two TBBT reruns at 9pm on CTV. (CTV2 simsubs Masterchef tuesdays, and a movie fridays).

[lostjon]

Following the season 1 finale of God Friended Me on Sunday, April 14, CTV will be reserving the 7:00pm timeslot for some Canadian content, with the premiere of the new original series Mary's Kitchen Crush on April 28. No word on the number of episodes, but I would imagine it will likely run into the early part of the summer.

On the very same night, CBS has the premiere of midseason drama The Red Line, which was picked up by CTV. Originally ordered for 8 episodes, CBS will run them as two-hour episodes for four straight weeks Sunday from 8:00pm to 10:00pm. Only problem: They already have NBC's World of Dance in simulcast. And over on CTV 2, it's American Idol in simulcast with ABC. So it's anyone's guess how CTV will get to fit this in their schedule. Sundays are full already with what they have. Mondays just got full now that MasterChef Canada is taking over the slot recently occupied by Magnum, P.I. There might be room on Tuesdays after The Rookie airs its season finale on April 16. Over on CTV 2, they already have The Voice on Mondays, and on Tuesdays, it's split between MasterChef Junior followed by one hour of sitcoms. Splitting Up Together wraps up its run next Tuesday (April 9), yet according to advanced listings, a rerun is scheduled the following week. Looks like they passed on the ABC sitcom Bless This Mess.

What's puzzling (yet not surprising) to me is why they decided to keep the rights to American Idol, when they are only airing the Sunday episodes while completely shelving the Monday ones. If this was the case, they should have just moved the show over to one of their specialty channels, or drop the rights altogether and someone else could have picked them up.

But then again, in typical Bell fashion, they never bother to show all the episodes of certain shows in their entirety. In addition, they decided to keep original episodes of The Enemy Within on CTV Sunday at 10:00pm, airing almost a week in post-release after their original run on NBC. They had numerous occasions to get these episodes on the air on the same night as NBC, but opted instead for Big Bang reruns. And CTV 2 has been using the Monday 10:00pm timeslot for second window runs of Temptation Island, which originally airs on specialty channel E!

And they've chosen to bench American Housewife and The Kids Are Alright from the schedule in favor of more Big Bang reruns. The ratings for those shows must have been that bad, but then again, what does one expect when they are bumped to Friday nights at 9:00pm in post-release?

Overall, just a complete mess. The upfronts are just over a month away and the programmers must be starting to reach for the panic button in anticipation for next season, with The Big Bang Theory no longer on the primetime schedule.

[mtlguy]

American Idol is doing much better than World of Dance in the States. Here of course CTV is going to get better ratings on anything vs CTV2. They should maybe switch those. BUt not sure how that would do.

The Red Line would have worked on Bravo, following the second season of Killing Eve maybe, instead of airing bad tv movie.

Could then end up moving World of Dance on Much or something for those weeks The Red Line is on. Would make better sense to me. They could always ship it, or World of Dance to Wednesday on CTV2, which has Discovery channel repeats from 8-10.

As for Bless this Mess it is a 20th Century Fox show, so might be why they didn't picked it up. Those usually go to City or Global. Wondering what will happen with CTV deal with ABC Studios now that 20th is owned by Disney, will it include those as well or will stay separate.

[mtlguy]

The Amazing Race is starting earlier than previously announced, on April 17th at 9pm. So this will casue a bit of an issue with CTV. That's Grey's Anatomy's slot. As GA and TBBT theory in originals until May 16th, they might have to put it back at 7pm, or have The Amazing Race on CTV2.

[InMontreal]

CTV could move Grey's to fridays 9pm, now that the ABC sitcoms are replaced with TBBT reruns... but it will have an impact on ratings, and advertisers. Therefor, thu 7pm makes sense.

As for above-mentionned American Idol, I checked the forum's past, YesTV (IndieNet) had simsubbed the show during winter 2016, its last season on Fox. It was probably too costly for them...

[lostjon]

American Idol is doing much better than World of Dance in the States. Here of course CTV is going to get better ratings on anything vs CTV2. They should maybe switch those. BUt not sure how that would do.

The Red Line would have worked on Bravo, following the second season of Killing Eve maybe, instead of airing bad tv movie.

Could then end up moving World of Dance on Much or something for those weeks The Red Line is on. Would make better sense to me. They could always ship it, or World of Dance to Wednesday on CTV2, which has Discovery channel repeats from 8-10.

As for Bless this Mess it is a 20th Century Fox show, so might be why they didn't picked it up. Those usually go to City or Global. Wondering what will happen with CTV deal with ABC Studios now that 20th is owned by Disney, will it include those as well or will stay separate.

Considering how it's been a long while since American Idol has aired on the main CTV network, splitting up the results episodes on CTV2, I wouldn't expect them to make a switch anytime soon.

Something has to give between The Red Line, World of Dance and The Enemy Within. Frankly, I don't see CTV giving up on World of Dance, but perhaps they should move The Enemy Within over to CTV2 on Mondays in simulcast with NBC - this is feasible now that they have finished those second window runs of Temptation Island. Mind you, The Enemy Within is not even doing that well in the ratings. That would free up room for Sunday 10:00pm to run one of the two episodes for The Red Line albeit in post-release on the same night as CBS. There's also room on Tuesdays 10:00pm once The Rookie wraps up its first season.

The Discovery Channel repeats on CTV2 are in line with their weekly CanCon commitments. Just like they did during football season, CanCon series and movies were reserved for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, as other nights of the week featured programming in simulcast with the American networks.

While I somewhat agree with The Red Line airing on Bravo, it's very rare to have a scripted series from among the Big Four broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) air original episodes on their specialty channels. And it would only work if it aired at the same time as the U.S. network, which in this case, it would not since they have Killing Eve at 8:00pm. Or CTV could possibly shelve it altogether and just wait until the summer.

Indeed, the upfronts this year will be different with Disney now owning 20th Century FOX. It's anyone's guess when you consider that Bell has had a long history with Disney's production studio that has allowed them to acquire most of the shows on ABC. And yet Corus has spent the last few years expanding the Disney portfolio on the specialty side (Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, ABC Family). Meanwhile, in recent years, Rogers built a partnership with 20th Century FOX, so the majority of the network's shows and content from their studio have been picked up for CityTV and FX.

[lostjon]

CTV could move Grey's to fridays 9pm, now that the ABC sitcoms are replaced with TBBT reruns... but it will have an impact on ratings, and advertisers. Therefor, thu 7pm makes sense.

As for above-mentionned American Idol, I checked the forum's past, YesTV (IndieNet) had simsubbed the show during winter 2016, its last season on Fox. It was probably too costly for them...

I was thinking the same thing as well. Most logical decision would be to have The Amazing Race air Wednesday 9:00pm in simulcast with CBS and move Grey's Anatomy to Thursday 7:00pm in post-release with ABC.

Friday 9:00pm will unfortunately remain a filler slot for Big Bang reruns. As for those missing episodes of American Housewife and The Kids Are Alright, they'll air at some point (likely in the summer) but make their way to the schedule quietly and with little promotion. They also have the upcoming season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premiering on May 10 at 8:00pm.

I would have suggested Wednesdays at 8:30pm following The Goldbergs (after Jann concludes its 6-week run), but at this point, CTV feels more at ease with likely a Big Bang rerun rather than going with original episodes of a sitcom that's not doing well for them. If these shows do return next season, I would be inclined to think that they either get dropped by CTV and picked up by someone else, or if Bell "really" wants to hold on to the rights, it will be exclusive to CTV2.

In all honesty, the numerous Big Bang reruns filling up the schedule is CTV trying to cover up what is likely a moderately dismal year, taking into account the new and returning shows this season. No matter how much of a positive spin they try to put every year, they look to be falling short of expectations in key demographics.

Among the new shows they picked up this season, God Friended Me, Magnum P.I. and The Conners are the only ones that have been renewed so far, and even these are far from being the biggest hit shows. The Resident is already confirmed to return for another season. Everything else is still up in the air. The Rookie is on the bubble, along with the sitcom The Kids Are Alright. All their midseason replacements are on shaky ground, including The Fix, Whiskey Cavalier and The Enemy Within. And of course, there are few others coming up in the next few months, like The Red Line and Grand Hotel (June 17). They picked up first run rights to The Beaverton over from Comedy, but my guess is that is being pushed back to summer as well. Among returning shows, yes, they still have shows like Grey's Anatomy, This Is Us, The Good Doctor and Young Sheldon that seem to be solid performers. Of course, The Big Bang Theory has been the one show that has helped them perform well overall these past few years, but come next season, that's going to change. At the moment, do they have a show that is in good position to supplant Big Bang with the same numbers for 2019-2020? I can't see anything on the horizon at the moment.

[mtlguy]

Next year Young Sheldon will probably move to 8pm as it is the biggest comedy for CBS and have a new show at 8:30. Wondering what CTV will do, but they probably will start the season with that in simulcast over bringing back GA in simulcast. Depending on how Sheldon does without Big Bang, that may be revised down the road.

As for TBBT filler, unfortunately they probably will continue next year even without original episodes airing, because that would probably do better ratings than most new and a lot of existing shows. I understand why, they are looking for ratings over originality, but they have to be careful as this is getting ridiculous the amounts of airing it gets.

[InMontreal]

One week to go, CTV hasn't modified its wednesday schedule for CBS's Amazing Race... If I remember correctly last year, CTV shelved the show and burned it in the summer. Guess that's the plan. With some upcoming 2-hours season finales next month, CTV will need those those precious 7pm eTalk "weekly primetime cancon quota fillers" (seriously, get rid of those TBBT fillers instead).

[lostjon]

One week to go, CTV hasn't modified its wednesday schedule for CBS's Amazing Race... If I remember correctly last year, CTV shelved the show and burned it in the summer. Guess that's the plan. With some upcoming 2-hours season finales next month, CTV will need those those precious 7pm eTalk "weekly primetime cancon quota fillers" (seriously, get rid of those TBBT fillers instead).

For the previous season of The Amazing Race, it aired on CBS in January 2018. CTV waited until February and aired an episode nearly every night of the week during the Winter Olympics.

CTV has finally made some modifications to the schedule on their website. For the next week on Wednesday (April 17), Grey's Anatomy (pre-ABC) will air at 8:00pm followed by the season premiere of The Amazing Race (s-CBS) at 9:00pm.

Original series Jann moves to Thursday at 8:30pm for a special one-time airing after a new episode of The Big Bang Theory on April 18. Both The Goldbergs and Young Sheldon are in reruns so CTV is able to make these moves without having to use the 7:00pm hour for their primetime shows.

Fast forward to the following week, and CTV catches yet another lucky break. ABC's Thursday night lineup is pre-empted so no new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Station 19. Meanwhile, Jann wraps up its run of six episodes, likely back in its regular Wednesday 8:30pm timeslot on April 24 and Young Sheldon returns with new episodes on Thursday April 25. The Goldbergs is a rerun once again and they have spare room to fill for Thursday 9:00pm with what will likely be more Big Bang fillers.

It was already announced that the Billboard Music Awards will be airing on Wednesday, May 1 and this time it will be on CTV2, in simulcast with NBC. This makes more sense now especially that CTV has new episodes of The Goldbergs, The Amazing Race and Whiskey Cavalier for the rest of the season. With Jann having finished its run, its timeslot will likely be filled with more Big Bang fillers.

[InMontreal]

There's also room on Tuesdays 10:00pm once The Rookie wraps up its first season.

For the next two tuesdays, CTV scheduled... 2x TBBT reruns to fill the slot.
What happened? They ran out of Criminal Minds fillers?

On Thursday Apr 18, NBC announced the timeslot swap of Voice and Village starting next tuesday. Voice should be Live... It's a long weekend, and CTV programmers haven't catch the switcheroo as of writing this on saturday night.

[InMontreal]

Blindspot Pulled From NBC Schedule With Renewal Status Still TBA
https://tvline.com/2019/04/26/blinds...lled-season-4/

Friday, April 26
8 pm The Blacklist time slot premiere (two-hour episode)
10 pm Dateline

Friday, May 3 and May 10
8 pm The Blacklist
9 pm Dateline time slot premiere (two hours)

Friday, May 17
8 pm The Blacklist Season 6 finale

Friday, May 24
8 pm Blindspot returns

Friday, May 31
8 pm Blindspot Season 4 finale (two episodes)

... You know what that means? CTV can air 2.5 hours of TBBT reruns on friday nights !

[mtlguy]

Agent of Shield is returning on May 10th. So they might bump Blindspot to 9pm when it returns as it probably will get cancel and Shield is already renewed.

[lostjon]

Agent of Shield is returning on May 10th. So they might bump Blindspot to 9pm when it returns as it probably will get cancel and Shield is already renewed.

That appears to be the plan. Advanced listings for Friday May 10 show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. at 8:00pm and Blindspot at 9:00pm, and this was likely the plan before yesterday's announcement. So more Big Bang fillers for the 9:00pm hour.

When Blindspot returns from hiatus on May 24, it will almost certainly be the 9:00pm slot (post-NBC). As for May 31, where NBC plans to run back-to-back episodes including the season (looking more to be the series) finale, CTV has the option to run them in simulcast and timeshift Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in pre-release at 7:00pm for that one evening only.

[lostjon]

And with the month of May approaching, it's that time of year again where CTV and CTV2 have to figure out where to program their finales and slowly make the transition to their summer schedule.

First off, CTV is benching The Goldbergs for Grey's Anatomy on Wednesday 8:00pm, which was caused by the early return of The Amazing Race airing at 9:00pm in simulcast with CBS. Easy decision would be to move it over to CTV2, but it looks like they are sticking with CanCon reruns from Discovery for the evening, except on May 1 for the Billboard Music Awards (s-NBC). Looking further ahead, CBS moves The Amazing Race to 8:00pm on May 22, while FOX has Masterchef set to return the following week on May 29 at the same time.

Then there's also The Red Line, which looks more likely to be reserved for summer or perhaps exclusive to Crave (a la Ten Days in the Valley) depending on the show's ratings. Running back-to-back episodes for four weeks straight seems like more of a burnoff and does not exactly demonstrate confidence in the show's prospects. Or then again, that was the only way that CBS could fit it in to their schedule. On that note, World of Dance wraps up on Sunday, May 5 so there's potentially room for the last two Sundays (May 12 and 19). Even then, where do they air the first four episodes?

Of course, CTV has been pushing all their promos for the series finale of The Big Bang Theory, coming up on Thursday, May 16. Not surprisingly, it will be a one-hour episode and for that night only, CBS will air the Young Sheldon season finale at 9:00pm. Both of those shows will air on CTV, but it runs into conflict with the Station 19 finale, which either goes at 7:00pm in pre-release or gets bumped over to CTV2 in simulcast. CTV2 is just burning off Criminal Minds fillers on Thursdays now that Gotham has finished its run, along with season 2 of ABC's For the People.

Noteworthy finale dates:
May 5 - World of Dance (NBC)
May 6 - The Resident (FOX)
May 8 - The Goldbergs (ABC)
May 10 - Blue Bloods (CBS)
May 16 - The Big Bang Theory (1-hour series finale, CBS), Young Sheldon (CBS), Grey's Anatomy (ABC), Station 19 (ABC), Law & Order: SVU (NBC), For the People (ABC)
May 19 - American Idol (3-hour live season finale, ABC), The Red Line (final week of back-to-back episodes, CBS)
May 20 - The Fix (ABC), The Enemy Within (NBC)
May 21 - The Village (NBC), The Voice (2-hour live season finale, NBC)
May 22 - Whiskey Cavalier (ABC)

[mtlguy]

That appears to be the plan. Advanced listings for Friday May 10 show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. at 8:00pm and Blindspot at 9:00pm, and this was likely the plan before yesterday's announcement. So more Big Bang fillers for the 9:00pm hour.

When Blindspot returns from hiatus on May 24, it will almost certainly be the 9:00pm slot (post-NBC). As for May 31, where NBC plans to run back-to-back episodes including the season (looking more to be the series) finale, CTV has the option to run them in simulcast and timeshift Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in pre-release at 7:00pm for that one evening only.

Blue Blood ends on May 10th so they can have the 2 hours Blindspot in simulcast and have Shield at 10pm. But they have so rarely remove Blue Blood, even in repeat that they may prefer 7pm. Or maybe the first Hour of Blindspot at 7pm and simulcast Shield and the 2nd hour.

Honestly, I am so happy we get the US network here otherwise for those who don't, following some US series here must be hell and you can bet you'll miss some episodes if your show is not TBBT.

[mtlguy]

For Red Line, CBS said it was because the show is serial and it works better to show them this way. Not binging per say, but getting the full 1st season in a few weeks only. It is a Berlanti show, so those shows usually are good and network believe in them, so you never know.

[InMontreal]

I had NBC's The Enemy Within episodes stacked up on my PVR and decided to binge watch. I hated it. After 3 episodes, I flushed the rest of the series from the PVR and deleted the program.
Take any of those show where a civilian has a key role in solving police work in a bad-guy-of-the-week or terrorist-of-the-week format with a big boss waiting at the end of the season, and you basically have The Enemy Within, except the civilian was high rank FBI boss who opted for prison to protect a loved one... or some bigger secret... The usual, just like Blacklist : We need you, you're the only one who has links to the bad guys. Keep that person in custody after a helpful tip, he/she will elaborate a plan to escape anyway, then a few episodes later, oh, we need you in the field for this particular mission... You know, the usual.

After Blacklist, Blindspot, Instinct, Take Two, Carter, Private Eyes, and even buddy-cop Lethal Weapon... NBC's new FBI series was déjà vu.


Week of finales. Fox's Resident ends next monday, therefor CTV has an empty slot mon May 13 at 8pm : TBBT fillers. Tue 14 at 10pm, no slot replacement : TBBT fillers. Wed 15, no Amazing Race : TBBT expected. Thu 16, TBBTverse finales, and finally fri 17 at 9pm is the expected Station 19 finale, but what will air at 8pm? You know it already... nope, not TBBT, but Agents of SHIELD... *ouf*... but at 10pm, CBS doesn't have a Blue Bloods rerun... huh hoh...