Watching This Week #113

Hi. This is the June 12, 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.

While we didn't have a chance to do Canadian fall schedule predictions this year, we do have a recap of what the major Canadian media groups have announced in terms of fall programming – plus the launch of an ad-supported option for Crave, and getting around to answering some mailbag questions. That's all after the listings for the coming week.

What's new this week – June 12–18

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: Amy Schumer: Emergency Contact (stand-up special – Tuesday); Our Planet II (nature docuseries – Wednesday); Black Mirror (season 6 – Thursday); Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King (anime film – Friday); Extraction 2 (action film sequel – Friday)
• Disney+: Full Count (Korean docuseries – Wednesday); The Full Monty (sequel series – Wednesday); Legends (Secret Invasion–related editions – Wednesday); The Search (Turkish series – Wednesday); The Zone: Survival Mission (season 2 – Wednesday); Chevalier (2023 film – Friday); Stan Lee (Marvel-related documentary – Friday);
• Crave: Awkwafina is Nora from Queens (season 3 – Friday, June 9*); Villeneuve Pironi (2023 racing documentary – Monday); How Do You Measure a Year? (HBO doc short – Wednesday); Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (season 2 – Thursdays, also on CTV Sci-Fi); Billionaire Murders (docuseries – Fridays); Bros (2022 rom-com film – Friday); Gaia (2021 horror film – Friday); The Inhabitant (2022 horror film – Friday); various past Wes Anderson films (Friday); John Early: Now More Than Ever (HBO stand-up special – Saturday); The Righteous Gemstones (season 3 – Sundays)
• Prime Video: Hostel Daze (season 4 – Thursday); Love Transit (Japanese series – Thursday); Neighbours (season 20, part 2 – Thursday); Guy Ritchie's The Covenant (2023 action film – Friday); The Grand Tour special: "Eurocrash" (Friday); Of an Age (2022 Australian film – Satuday)
• CBC Gem: Girl Like You (Australian doc – Monday); Alter Boys (drama series – Friday); The Awakeners (docuseries – Friday); Ever Deadly (Tanya Tagaq documentary – Friday); Hot Cakes (British docuseries – Friday); The Ice King (British doc – Friday); Marie Antoinette (BBC / Canal+ drama series – Friday)
• Paramount+ (also available as a channel on Prime Video and Apple TV): Charmed ("all seasons", but unclear which series – Tuesday); The Disappearance of Gabby Petito (true crime docuseries – Friday); Red Election (2021 European spy series – Friday);
• Apple TV+: Lovely Little Farm (season 2 – Friday)
• BritBox (also available as a channel on Prime Video and Apple TV): Father Brown (season 10 – Tuesdays)
• CTV2: The Wonder Years (season 2 – Wednesdays)
• W Network (also on StackTV): Outlander (season 7, part 1 – Sundays)
• CTV Drama: Project Runway (season 20 – Thursdays)
• CTV Life: Temptation Island (new season – Fridays)
• AMC (available on AMC+ on Prime Video and Apple TV): The Walking Dead: Dead City (Maggie / Negan spinoff – Thursdays on AMC+, Sundays on AMC)

This week in deals

As a reminder, we may get an affiliate commission for services you sign up for through links in this newsletter, which helps support our site maintenance, at no additional cost to you. Prices are in Canadian dollars before applicable sales taxes, and may change in the future.

• Crave is currently offering its ad-free, direct-to-consumer Crave Total plan for $89.94 every six months – equivalent to $14.99 per month, or 25% off the regular monthly price, and still a modest savings compared to the regular annual price – through July 7 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

A murky fall

The big Canadian broadcast groups announced their 2023–24 programming plans over the past couple of weeks, putting a brave face on what, for now, seems like a very uncertain set of fall lineups given the ongoing U.S. writers strike. Indeed, only one network – Citytv – bothered to publish an actual idealized fall schedule, with the others waiting to see what's actually scheduled on the American networks come September.

The CBC is promising more than 40 new and returning Canadian series, including a Canadian version of The Great Pottery Throw Down, and a three-part miniseries version of the recent BlackBerry movie. Upcoming international series include Dreaming Whilst Black from the BBC, A24 and Adjani Salmon; new seasons of Victoria, Miss Scarlet & the Duke, Belgravia, Das Boot, and Ten Year Old Tom; and repeats of Fox reality series Crime Scene Kitchen. Even with its minimal reliance on simulcast programming, the public network did not announce a linear fall schedule.

Citytv did announce a schedule which, much like this past year, is largely reliant on ABC reality series, and almost everything on the NBC schedule not conflicting with that – meaning the arrivals of Univeral-produced The Irrational, Warner Bros.-produced The Golden Bachelor, and Universal / WB co-production Found – in addition to the new domestic production Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, based on the format of the 2001–11 spinoff of the main series.

Interestingly, the Rogers-owned network is also bringing back Fox's Sunday night Animation Domination lineup after two years of those programs being exclusive to Fox affiliates (and Disney+), meaning that 20th Television-produced The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, and Family Guy will all be back this fall, alongside the long-delayed Fox Entertainment-owned series from Dan Harmon, Krapopolis. Finally, Citytv+ has taken over the rights to future seasons of FBoy Island (now on The CW in the U.S.; previously on HBO Max and on Crave in Canada) plus spinoff FGirl Island.

Over on Global, it's continued reliance on imports from CBS (and mainly from CBS Studios), including the reboot of Matlock, Good Wife/Fight spinoff Elsbeth, sitcom Poppa's House, reality series Buddy Games, and WB-produced game show Lotería Loca. There's also Sony-produced Fox drama Doc – a series based on an Italian format that doesn't have a cast yet, and not to be confused with the filmed-in-Canada early-2000s series Doc starring Billy Ray Cyrus that we think also aired on Global in Canada.

Global's sibling specialty channels under the Corus Entertainment umbrella confirmed they'd be carrying another season of Peacock originals, including Seth MacFarlane movie sequel series Ted, as well as Based on a True Story, Apples Never Fall, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and more.

CTV announced pickups including a Canadian version of All3Media's The Traitors reality franchise, and Fox reality series Snake Oil and Special Forces: World's Toughest Test (both distributed by Fox Entertainment via Incendo). Its other pickups leaned on its longstanding relationships with Disney and WBD: Tracker (a 20th Television production for CBS), Rescue: HI-Surf (from Warner Bros. for Fox), High Potential (ABC Signature), and rights to the films airing Sunday nights on ABC this fall under the Wonderful World of Disney banner.

In other news from Bell Media properties, CTV Drama picked up upcoming British series The Killing Kind (from Sony for Paramount+ UK), and CTV Sci-Fi will become the domestic production partner on Cineflix's Reginald the Vampire (commissioned by Syfy U.S. and heretofore available on Prime Video in Canada).

Crave is also continuing to step up its production of Canadian content, alongside a long-expected launch of an ad-supported tier this summer. That might partially explain the recent update to Bell's deal with WBD for HBO / Max content – the previous deal was signed at a time when HBO insisted its services be ad-free, and before HBO Max introduced ads itself – though the announcement did not state that all current content would be available in the ad-supported tier.

Programming news

• Season 10 of When Calls the Heart will air on Super Chanel Heart & Home Sundays starting July 30, day-and-date with its American broadcast on Hallmark Channel.

Mailbag

Here's some 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. Apologies for the delays in replying to many of these due to my recent busyness.

Laurie: I read that the Canadian series SkyMed had been renewed for a second season but have heard nothing since then. Do you have any info on when it may be returning and on what provider?

WCIW: The CBC recently said that season 2 of SkyMed will begin airing this fall on regular TV, but has not yet announced a specific date – probably in late September or October. Whenever it does, it should also be available to stream via the CBC Gem app.

Don: Do you have any insight about the Hulu series Drag Me to Dinner and Paramount+'s RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 8 Untucked being broadcast in Canada? I thought Dinner would pop up on Disney+ as so many Hulu series do but no sign yet. Untucked used to be available on OutTV but nada.

WCIW: Drag Me to Dinner is in fact co-produced by Canada's own Boat Rocker Studios, which appears to handle international distribution. Unfortunately we haven't seen any indication about a Canadian rightsholder; unlike many recent Hulu series, press releases have not included any statements about it eventually coming to Disney+ internationally.

As for Untucked, there doesn't seem to have been any change from last year – it seems to remain caught between the various rights held by World of Wonder, Paramount, Crave, and/or OutTV.

O: Is Disney+ not airing all 16 episodes of [Korean drama series] Dr. Romantic season 3? I only see 6 episodes.

WCIW: It looks like Disney+ is premiering episodes on an ongoing basis, on a one-month delay from their Korean broadcasts, which might be a contractual requirement from the producers or perhaps just related to translation time. It doesn't appear the season finale will air in Korea until June 17, so the Canadian release of those last episodes might not be until mid-July.

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