Watching This Week #112

Welcome to the May 29, 2023, edition of Watching This Week, the weekly newsletter from Where Can I Watch – covering the latest news on where TV shows and movies will be available in Canada.

Due to a recent family event, this is a fairly abbreviated edition focused on listings for the coming week – though we have a note below about an important potential change affecting Eastlink cable customers. We have also been working on our June listings roundup which, circumstances permitting, should be posted later this week.

Update (May 31): Due to continued time constraints, we are now planning on posting our June listings roundup this coming Monday, June 5. New program listings for most major services through June 4 are already reflected in the section below.

What's new this week – May 29–June 4

Compiled from our monthly listings and/or any subsequent updates we've come across. We strive for accuracy but schedules may change without notice. Some series/seasons may have weekly rollouts; we won't list new episodes every week (though we may note significant episodes such as series finales). *An asterisk denotes programming added in past weeks that we've learned about (or has been rescheduled) since our last newsletter.

• Netflix: I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (season 3 – Tuesday); Astérix & Obélix: The Middle Kingdom (film – Thursday); Girls5eva (season 2, previously on W – Thursday); Lego Ninjago: Dragons Rising (kids series – Thursday); Manifest (season 4, part 2 – Friday);
• Disney+: Ashita, Watashi wa Dareka no Kanojo (season 2 – Tuesdays); Aktris (Turkish series – Wednesday)
• Crave: Reality (HBO drama film – Monday); Dark Side of the Ring (season 4 – Tuesdays); Awkwafina is Nora from Queens (season 3 – Thursday); first two Fantastic Beasts films (2016–18 – Thursday); Door Mouse (2022 Canadian thriller film – Friday); The Curious Case of Dolphin Bay (2022 family film – Friday); The Goldbergs (10th and final season, previously on CTV2 – Friday); Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023 sequel – Friday); Painting with John (season 3 – Fridays); The Rookie (season 5, previously on CTV – Friday); The Rookie: Feds (season 1, previously on CTV – Friday); Vengeance (2022 B. J. Novak comedy-mystery film – Friday); The Idol (HBO drama series starring Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye – Sundays)
• Prime Video: Rodéo (2023 French-language Canadian film – Tuesday); various recent Nigerian films (Tuesday); Deadloch (dark comedy series – Thursday); Drop the Needle (Canadian music doc – Friday); Medellin (original Colombia-set action film – Friday); Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets (docuseries – Friday); With Love (season 2 – Friday); Knock at the Cabin (2023 M. Night Shyamalan horror film – Saturday)
• CBC Gem: Digi-Art (docuseries – Monday); short docs: Winnipeg's North End: A Food Desert, Spirit of Nation: The Places We Belong, Kokum, With Love (all available Thursday); Escape to the Country (season 29, part 1 – Friday); Love Me (season 2 – Friday); Pour toi Flora (2022 APTN/Radio-Canada series – Friday); Run Woman Run (2022 Canadian film, also already on Crave – Friday)
• Paramount+ (also available as a channel on Prime Video and Apple TV): The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019 Canadian film – Tuesday); Danger Force (some episodes – Tuesday); three George Michael specials (Wednesday); iCarly (season 3 – Thursday); Joe Pickett (season 2 – Sundays)
• BritBox (also available as a channel on Prime Video and Apple TV): The Cleaner (season 2 – Wednesday)
• W Network (also on StackTV): Everyone Else Burns (British sitcom – Mondays); Nancy Drew (4th and final season – Sundays)
• Discovery: East Harbour Heroes (docuseries – Mondays)
• Starz (also available as an add-on/channel on Crave, Prime Video, and Apple TV): Bad Behaviour (boarding school drama series – Fridays)

Corus, Eastlink unbundle

Eastlink, one of the larger Canadian TV service providers, serving as the incumbent cable provider in much of Atlantic Canada and a few other mostly rural markets across the the country, has informed its customers that it will no longer be carrying any specialty channels or on-demand programming offered by Corus Entertainment, starting Tuesday, June 27. That, of course, includes channels like Showcase, W Network, YTV, Treehouse, HGTV, Food Network, Disney Channel, and many more.

Local stations that are part of Corus' over-the-air Global network are covered by must-carry provisions and will remain available in most of the country. But on-demand access to Global programming, either through Eastlink or through Global's apps, is not covered by the same rules, and will be dropped.

Eastlink is promising that customers will be made whole by substituting other channels in their packages, either through the company's channel exchange platform or automatically – for example, Super Channel Heart & Home in place of W Network. But there is no suggestion that package prices will be reduced automatically.

While the early notice is required under CRTC rules, it's possible that the two sides could come to a new deal before the end of June. But as of this writing, neither Eastlink nor Corus has instigated any call-to-action to get customers to put pressure on the other side, unlike what is regularly seen with similar disputes in the United States.

Eastlink says it "worked very hard to reach an agreement" but was unable to do so. Corus told Broadcast Dialogue that its "door is always open to future negotiations".

Tellingly, both sides have pointed to, among other options, Corus' StackTV streaming package (available through Prime Video for $12.99 per month) as an alternative for those looking for this programming without switching their main service provider.

Other streaming-based options for Corus channels include Quebecor's RiverTV, which costs $16.99 per month and offers most of the channels included in StackTV, as well as Fubo, which recently launched a $14.99 per month entertainment-focused option in Canada which includes the same channels in StackTV.

Mailbag

Here's one of the reader questions we've received recently by email (hello@wherecaniwatch.ca). We welcome questions of general interest, and publish a few of them (and our answers) from time to time; messages may be edited for brevity and clarity.

Norda: When or will the Paramount+ series Yellowstone and its spinoff 1923 continue? I understand that Kevin Costner will discontinue his role in Yellowstone but I don’t know why these series leave viewers with plots stopping at key turning points.

WCIW: The cliffhanger – whether it's used at the end of a season, an episode, or before a commercial break – is a plot device older than the medium of television. We can't speak to how effective it actually is in maintaining audience interest until the show returns, but it remains a very common practice across TV series.

Anyways, in terms of when these series will return: all we know so far is that the final batch of episodes from the original Yellowstone series will begin to air later in 2023. Meanwhile, 1923 has been renewed for a second season for which a release date has not yet been announced, but will likely be late this year or early 2024. Typically the services in question will wait until a month or so before the premiere to announce a specific date, perhaps in case there are any production issues that delay the season.

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