Monthly Archives: February 2013

Motive, Ratings

Motive premieres to 1.23 million viewers

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From a media release:

Canadian Viewers Find their MOTIVE: New Canadian Series Debuts with 1.23 Million Viewers

  • #1 Canadian Series Premiere of the Broadcast Season
  • Encore episode of MOTIVE airs tonight on CTV Two at 10 p.m. ET/PT

It was another touchdown for CTV’s original programming slate last night as, despite an 11p.m. ET start time, 1.23 million viewers tuned in for the post-SUPER BOWL premiere of its new original drama series MOTIVE. The debut becomes the #1 Canadian series premiere of the 2012/13 broadcast year. With 4.2 million viewers tuning in to some or all of the new Canadian crime drama, MOTIVE tackled its competition by more than doubling ELEMENTARY’s audience head-to-head (548,000; Global), and kicked off its debut season as the most-watched program of the night, next to the SUPER BOWL. Following a massive promotion and publicity campaign, MOTIVE held steady throughout the delayed broadcast and scored big among both men and women, with a 6.5 rating for M18-34 in Toronto and a 5.2 rating for F18-34 in Vancouver.

An encore presentation of last night’s premiere episode airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV Two, and on Saturday, Feb 9 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV in addition to the CTV Mobile channel. MOTIVE is also currently available on demand across CTV’s digital platforms: CTV.ca, the CTV App, and through video on demand partners. Next week, MOTIVE settles into its regular time slot with an all-new episode, entitled “Crimes of Passion” (Sunday, Feb. 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV). When a teenaged girl is killed in a hit-and-run accident, the first clues point Detectives Flynn (Kristin Lehman) and Vega (Louis Ferreira) toward the girl’s disgruntled ex-boyfriend. Passion is a strong enough motive for murder, but Angie believes the boyfriend is innocent. She takes a different tack, which reveals a connection between the victim and an eminent prosecutor in the midst of a mayoral campaign. Turns out that passion may well be the motive, and the underpinning of a secret double life. MOTIVE is produced by Foundation Features and Lark Productions in association with Bell Media.

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Seed

Seed premieres tonight – reviews & interviews

From Scott Stinson of the National Post:

  • Adam Korson makes his selfish goof likeable to make Seed a success
    My reaction upon first hearing of the premise of Seed, in which a single man in his thirties is tracked down by the biological offspring who are a result of his sperm-donor days, was that it sounded awfully contrived. I’m pretty sure there are laws against that kind of thing — the tracking-down part, if not the actual donation. Read more.

From John Doyle of the Globe and Mail:

  • Meet Harry: slacker, sperm donor … father of three
    Seed (City, 8:30 p.m.) is deeply silly and the kind of good, off-kilter dumb comedy that we can do with aplomb in Canada. Especially out of Halifax, it seems. There’s no recipe, but among the requirements are characters who are fabulously immature, plus some sharp, unostentatious writing and a version of stoner humour that works even if you’re not five miles high. Read more.

From Tony Wong of the Toronto Star:

From Jennifer Cox of Crave:

  • A Candid Talk With Adam Korson Of “Seed“
    Harry is a loveable charming bachelor bartender who is the kind of guy who has a different woman every night but tells it like it is. Women want to sleep with him and guys want to hang out with him. He loves the life he lives and when the kids come into it, there’s resistance at first but you can’t help but fall in love with him. Read more.
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Endgame, Murdoch Mysteries, Seed

Monday: Seed, Murdoch Mysteries, Being Human, Wild Things

Seed

Seed, Citytv -“Ill Conceived”
Harry (Korson) discovers his trips to the sperm bank (a.k.a. bank machine) as a young man have resulted in kids – lots of them. When the story begins years later, Harry receives a knock on the door from nine-year-old Billy (William Ainscough), a kid with two moms, who has just hacked into the sperm bank’s database. While Harry quickly becomes Billy’s missing father-figure, Harry learns of another offspring, 15-year-old Anastasia (Abby Ross), who instantly idolizes him as the cool parent she thinks she deserves. Though Harry’s eager to reap the benefits of fatherhood – without any of the responsibility – Billy’s and Anastasia’s parents are loath to let him into their lives. Meanwhile, Harry meets Rose (Carrie-Lynn Neales, The L.A. Complex), a beautiful, albeit neurotic, single woman who’s tired of dealing with men and their games, and decides to have a baby on her own. Despite his permanent bachelor lifestyle, Harry comes to believe that his many sessions with that swimsuit catalogue at Cryobank may bring some meaning to his life, a legacy beyond his mastery of video games.

Murdoch Mysteries, CBC – “Murdoch Au Naturel”
Murdoch enlists some revealing detective work while investigating a murder at a nudist community.

Being Human, Space – “I’m So Lonesome I Could Die”
Sally (Meaghan Rath, FLASHPOINT) reaches out to Aidan (Sam Witwer, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) as his struggle to survive becomes grimmer. Josh (Sam Huntington, Fanboys) and Erin (Lydia Doesburg, SUPERNATURAL) accompany Nora (Kristen Hager, A Little Bit Zombie) when she visits her family, and Josh helps Aidan locate untainted blood.

Wild Things With Dominic Monaghan, OLN – “Namibia – Black Hairy Thick-Tailed Scorpion”
Dominic Monaghan (Lost) braves the remote wilderness of Namibia in search of the continent’s largest and deadliest scorpion.

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Seed

Seed a “family-friendly raunch-fest”

From Emily Gagne of TV Guide Canada:

  • City plants dirty, yet sweet ‘Seed’
    Since the sitcom follows a sexually active thirtysomething man (Adam Korson) who comes to meet two of the kids his sperm donation days fathered as well as a girl (Carrie-Lynn Neales) who might want him to be her baby daddy, it’s certainly got a certain, “Parental Discretion Advised” sauciness to it. But creator Joseph Raso and executive producer Mark Farrell (Corner Gas) assure that all the innuendo is undercut by genuine emotions and scenarios everyone can, figuratively, get in bed with. Read more.
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Featured, Seed

Seed stays grounded with heart

Seed

By Diane Wild of TV, eh?

After the forced defection of Murdoch Mysteries to CBC, City debuts its first scripted series in ages on Monday. Seed has enough comedic and storytelling confidence to signal hope for the network’s recent rebrand and its upcoming series such as Package Deal and Mother Up. It’s also the first new Canadian show in a while that’s compelled me to add it to my regular viewing list after viewing the first two episodes.

But before I put too much weight of a network and an entire industry on one enjoyable series, I spoke to Toronto born-and-bred Seed star Adam Korson about the emotional appeal of a potentially prurient premise.

Korson plays Harry, a charming and manipulative bartender whose longest relationship seems to be with a sperm bank. Seed‘s premiere, “Ill Conceived,” has Harry meeting a couple of the fruits of his labours: nine-year-old Billy and 15-year-old Anastasia, and the families who reluctantly let him into their lives.

“At the root of it all it’s about a family, a group of strangers who come together to form a family, and what’s your responsibility as a parent to your child,” said Korson.

“The topic could lend itself to potty humour but it’s really not. Joseph Raso, Mark Farrell, and all the other writers make sure it has heart. They push the envelope with the humour but there are stories, there are relationships, you really get invested in these characters. It’s grounded.”

It’s also laugh-out-loud funny, including a great turn by Carrie-Lynn Neales as Rose, a single woman ready to have a child on her own who sees Harry as a potential one-night-stand sperm donor.

Korson was drawn to acting after a grade 7 assignment to give a presentation on the life of an explorer. “In my mind I took that as ‘do a one-man show,’ so I picked Christopher Columbus and did a one-man show on his life. I got perfect on the assignment which was nice, but getting the response from my classmates like that it was like a drug. That was it for me.”

He’s seen some initial audience reaction to his latest production — the Seed pilot was released online a week prior to its television premiere — and is gratified at the response already. Soon he and the network will see if Seed takes root with a larger audience.

Seed premieres Monday, February 4 on City.

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