Elbows (and bottoms) up: The down-low on the upfronts at Corus, Rogers, Bell Media and CBC | Canada Voices

Elbows up – and bottoms up!

I got to observe the loopy, lubricated world of the newly nationalistic Canadian television industry upfronts up close last week.

For the uninitiated, upfronts are live or streamed presentations where big media conglomerates – Corus Entertainment, Rogers, CBC and Bell Media in this case – each take a turn trying to get marketing folks to buy commercial time “up front” before a new season of shows.

The nation’s media buyers started a hunt for advertising opportunities on Monday morning over mimosas with Matlock at Corus’s headquarters on the Toronto waterfront – and ended it on Thursday afternoon with the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs hockey team from Shoresy inviting them to Bell Media’s open bar at Meridian Hall.

I kept to coffee and crudités and came away with the following takeaways.

1. Patriotism is a paradox in the Canadian TV biz

The nationalism of the moment was channelled in the most comically contradictory of manners at the Corus upfront.

Those in attendance were invited to applaud the company’s staff as they unfurled a banner that read “Proudly Canadian!”

This was immediately followed by executives eagerly conducting onstage interviews with flown-in stars from the American shows that take up prime time on its flagship network Global – from navy-cop soap NCIS to the coming The Office follow-up The Paper.

In the end, the breakdown in the American-Canadian relationship was only seriously broached – jokingly – by late-night comedian Stephen Colbert, whose Late Show runs on Global.

“Retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods have really put a damper on my personal hobby of exporting car parts to Manitoba,” Colbert bemoaned, in a recorded message.

Nobody at Corus, Rogers or Bell Media wants to see Canadians going seriously elbows up by cutting back on consumption of American screen content – but cancelling subscriptions to American-owned streaming services would be okay by them.

The big fear in the sector isn’t tariffs, but losing ads to American streamers like Amazon’s Prime Video, which held its first-ever Canadian upfront in Toronto a week earlier.

2. Everything is number one now

There’s so many different ways to measure a show’s viewership these days – between live, recorded and on demand; in apps, on websites, on actual television sets – that upfronts can feel like an elementary-school track meet.

I don’t know how both Bell Media’s CTV and Corus’s Global can both be home to the country’s number one national newscast, for instance – but I’m sure their parent companies have numbers to back up the claim.

Opinion: CBC shows off circus tricks and rescue pups, but no new dramas or comedies at 2025-26 upfront

CBC, meanwhile, is just proud to be television’s number one CBC. Saint-Pierre is its most-watched new series (on linear TV). North of North is also its most-watched new series (on Gem streaming service). Furthermore, Andrew Chang’s About That is its most-watched show (on YouTube).

Who’s in a rush to standardize measurement again when everyone can be a winner?

3. Any character can be killed any time – even on network TV

Global was home to a couple of the more talked-about TV character deaths this spring: Francis X McCarthy’s was shot on NCIS, and Peter Krause’s succumbed to a contagion event on 9-1-1.

But the most surprising sudden disappearance may have been in the network’s c-suite.

On Monday, Corus co-CEO Troy Reeb bounded onto the stage at the upfront with incredible energy. “Welcome everybody to Corus country!” he exclaimed. “This is the greatest country in the world!”

Two days later, Reeb immigrated away from the greatest country in the world. “In light of the evolving industry landscape as well as the actions taken to date to stabilize the capital and debt structure of the Company, the Board has decided to transition back to a single CEO structure,” Corus’s lead independent director Mark Hollinger said in a statement. In the release, Corus said Reeb had decided to pursue opportunities outside the company and John Gossling, who previously shared the job with him, had been appointed sole CEO.

Those types of twists and turns are what keep us watching.

4. Canada’s Got Ads

As a father whose son had a Canada’s Got Talent-themed birthday party (I did a magic trick and it was pretty good), I’m bummed that Rogers has hit “pause” on the franchise.

Instead, CGT judge Howie Mandel is back on Citytv this winter with a show with even more opportunities for product placement: The Price is Right Tonight. At a streamed-only upfront, Mandell talked of how the primetime game show would offer “hundreds of integration opportunities for brands.”

Citytv will be Canada’s number one home for infomercials in disguise this season as it has also picked up NBC’s On Brand with Jimmy Fallon – a reality show in which contestants create campaigns for major brands.

5. Bell Media’s the only place making serious streaming-era drama in Canada

I get why Citytv’s Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is popular – but why do Canadian networks think homegrown law and order is all we want to watch?

Global’s Murder in a Small Town and Family Law are back for 2025-2026 – while Jason Priestley/Cindy Sampson’s not-that-old Toronto PI show Private Eyes is getting rebooted as the Victoria-set Private Eyes: West Coast.

Citytv will have its third dose of dun-dun, while Hudson and Rex returns for a eighth bow-wow (with new canine and human leads).

CBC has a continuing drama lineup that consists of Heartland plus four police procedurals – and its execs are out at the Banff World Media Festival this week actively soliciting pitches for new law, medical and PI shows.

Thank heavens for Bell Media – the only place commissioning serialized and non-formulaic TV dramas.

Crave, its streaming service, in particular has a long list in development that’ll slide in easily next to its premium HBO content and its two-solitude-bridging Quebec hit Empathie.

I’m personally pumped for Seoul Palace – about an exiled Korean rock star starting a nightclub in Toronto in the 1970s and inspired by the true story behind rock hall Lee’s Palace. Yaga sounds promising too – an eight-part series spawned from popular playwright Kat Sandler’s stage show about the folkloric Baba Yaga.

A trailer for six-part crime drama The Borderline, starring Stephen Amell and Hamza Haq as childhood friends who went down different paths, looked sharp too – with Minnie Driver playing against type as the villain.