Bell pulls the plug on Canada AM. We pull the plug on cable

Today, I got told off by Ben Mulroney, the CTV go-to fellar who apparently will, along with Anne Marie Mediwake, be replacing the crew at the middle aged Canada AM. In case, you didn't hear, the AM crew was unceremoniously punted yesterday and had its last show this morning.

"Hey Rosalita," wrote Ben on Twitter. "A couple is 2. Idol was on for 6 (excruciating) years. Oh, and at the time, it was the highest rated English language show of all time." Inserted comment mine.

The Count was responding to my Tweet reminding everybody that Canadian Idol was cancelled after two seasons. My bad. I must have turned it off after the second season.

I couldn't believe the lightening speed at which Ben responded to my Tweet. He must have the skin of a grape crushed under Lucille Ball's feet. I was indeed surprised that someone of his celebrity would give a shit what I said. Oh well.

I couldn't help sharing his Tweet on Facebook where many of my friends expressed surprise that Canadian Idol was really that popular, and was, in fact, the highest rated English language show of all time! (Being a lawyer, Ben did say "at the time," though the egotist in him couldn't help the "of all time" bit in the same sentence.)

I couldn't help but think that maybe there were shows that were more successful. Like Degrassi which has been syndicated around the world, and picked up for international airing on Netflix in January. I looked all over Netflix, and I simply couldn't not find one damned episode of Canadian Idol.

There were many more examples of shows I thought, really, were more popular than Canadian Idol:

The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, for example. Or Hockey Night in Canada. Or The Beachcombers. Or Dragon's Den. The Mercer Report. This Hour has Twenty Two Minutes.

Maybe even Due South!

I probably can name a dozen more shows, but then you'd stop reading or I'd put myself to sleep or both.

It's not really my point, anyway.

I simply don't understand why the network would 86 a solid show like Canada AM and reboot it for "the next generation" and feature a middle aged son of a former Prime Minister who went to law school to talk to Justin Bieber.

If they were going to reboot for millennials, why not tap a couple of Canadians who actually represent generational change? Who needs Peter Pan when CTV could actually hire one of the Lost Boys?

Why not tappa rappa? Or hire a millennial to tickle the funny bone?

And there are enough kids coming out of J School who have absolutely no hope whatsoever of getting a job in television otherwise, so they would work very cheaply indeed,

Bell probably didn't think of that. The suits were too busy firing people, or too lazy to conduct a talent search.

Anyway, whatever Bell does, its new reboot will surely blow like Gabriel's horn.

Now that's my opinion.

I didn't ask Nik Nanos or nuthin'.

I'm just an old gal who may be the only one on the block who still subscribes to premium cable to watch shows like Canada AM.

Clearly, I'm out of touch.

Maybe it's time to cut the cord once and for all.

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Rose's Cantina

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