This Week in WCIW #21

Joshua Gorner -

Welcome to the May 10, 2021 edition of This Week in WCIW, the weekly newsletter from Where Can I Watch – covering the latest news on where TV shows and movies will be available in Canada.

There wasn't much in the way of news this past week. But that may change soon, since the U.S. broadcast networks are starting to gear up for their annual upfronts – when they announce their programming for the season starting in September – which typically sets off a rush for Canadian broadcast networks to buy their new shows. Of course, those events were much more muted last year due to the pandemic, and it's not clear yet how much of a rebound there'll be this year.

Programming news

  • The second season of Why Women Kill, which was originally commissioned by CBS All Access / Paramount+ U.S., will apparently premiere in Canada on W Network starting Sunday, June 13 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. The first season aired on W late year, after first being available on CBSAA Canada in 2019.
     
  • AMC will have the North American linear premiere of the second season of A Discovery of Witches on Sundays starting June 27. The first two episodes will air back-to-back starting at 7:00 p.m. ET, with subsequent episodes airing starting at 8:00. The season is already available in full in Canada on AMC Networks streaming services Shudder and Sundance Now.
     
  • As recently noted by "Dr. Dave" on DigitalHome.ca, CTV has quietly added premiere dates for a number of new seasons from Discovery and related networks on its website. At first glance, it appears most of these are existing series that would have airing on the linear networks anyways, as opposed to Discovery+ exclusive programming.
     
  • Bell Media has similarly quietly begun re-airing selected celebrity-focused HBO Max original series, including Wahl Street, Ellen's Next Great Designer, and The Big Shot with Bethenny, Tuesday nights on CTV Life Channel and Saturday nights on E! Canada, in addition to their ad-free availability on Crave. Episodes air on the linear channels but do not appear to be available on either the CTV or E! websites.
  • Bell's PR site confirmed last week – on a page that gets refreshed daily and does not archive well – that Crave will be carrying the upcoming HBO Max drama series Love and Death starring Elizabeth Olsen. (The series was only just announced, so don't expect it to be available for at least a few months.)
     
    We wouldn't note this except for the fact that Love and Death is produced by Lionsgate, and thus falls outside of the output agreement that Bell Media has with WarnerMedia, so the fact that it landed on Crave was not necessarily obvious. Bell has a separate relationship with Lionsgate for Starz programming, and Crave carries the similarly-situated Love Life, but it did not pick up the unscripted Lionsgate-produced HBO Max series House of Ho.

Recent updates on WCIW

We made a few minor updates to our overall HBO Max post to reflect some of the recent updates mentioned above, but nothing beyond that.

Thanks for reading – we greatly appreciate your support. If you like this newsletter, please consider forwarding to a friend who might be interested, or if you're in a position to do so, support our hosting costs via our Buy Me a Coffee page.

If you're new to This Week in WCIW, you can catch up on past editions here, and sign up to receive future editions on our website at https://www.wherecaniwatch.ca/newsletter/. Or, if you're reading this on the web, you can use the form directly below.

We'll see you again next week.