The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 79

THE VANCOUVER SUN, SATURDAY, MAY 27, 2000 E15 Eiitoltaffliiment VTV TOP PROGRAM: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 284,000 viewers. TOP SERIES: Order, 153,000 viewers. ODDITY: Despite the team's ineptitude, VTV's Vancouver Canuck telecasts outdraw Hockey Night In Canada's late games by an average 8,000 viewers, and HNICs early games by an average 80,000. DAILY SPECIALS SATURDAY Festival It's Author Appreciation Day and Fair in the Square as the Vancouver Public Library wraps up its week-long bash celebrating five years in Library Square. Former Vancouver Sun writer Paul St.

Pierre, Vancouver's youngest station debuted four years ago this September with a patchwork schedule based on a handful of CTV cast-offs VTV is owned outright by CTV a surfeit of unknowns passed over by other networks and stations, and a brace of TELEVISION from E1 4 own against their privately owned equivalents like VTV's Jim Byrnes Show Gabereau Live! (6,000) and BCTVCHEK's Home Check (11,000 viewers). Even reruns of the defunct Booked on Saturday Night drew an average 13,000 viewers not enough, however, to stave off eventaul cancellation. On a more positive note, Da Vinci's Inquest is a genuine hit and not just a charity case for local production. Da Vinci's 111,000 viewers outnumber the audience for all series on CHEK-TV but one (JAG) and would be enough place Da Vinci on both BCTV and Global's top 20 lists, which are dominated by American shows. The recently cancelled, Maple Ridge-based Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy drew a respectable 60,000 viewers, which again calls into question funding and programming decisions being made in Toronto; that is more than double the local audience for the Vancouver-made Cold Squad, recently renewed by CTV for its third season.

The National performs reasonably well against its 10 p.m. competition, with an average nightly audience of 91,000 viewers. More than two-thirds of that audience stays tuned to the National Magazine which follows. Another 30,000 watch The National rebroadcast at 11 p.m., bringing the CBC's flagship newscast to a combined audience of 121,000, decent numbers but still behind CTV News with Lloyd Robertson's average nightly audience of 133,000. Local news continues to be a soft spot, however.

Despite an impressive track record in journalism awards, Broadcast One's average of 35,000 viewers pales in comparison to BCTV and CHEK's combined audience of 314,000 for News Hour. Broadcast One's respectable showing against Global's Global News at Six (67,000 viewers) and VTV's Vancouver Live at 6:00 (14,000) is tempered by the fact that its audience skews old, unlike VTV and Global, which target a younger, more free-spending kind of viewer. Then again, ads probably don't belong on a public broadcaster, anyway. It's high time CBC-TV weaned itself off ads altogether. Law and Order author of Breaking Smith's Quarter Horse and winner of this year's $5,000 BC Gas Lifetime Achievement Award, is the author who is the focus of the appreciation.

And when the formalities dissolve into the fair there will be a Public Dreams parade, music by Flying Folk Army, poetry, puppetry and a performance of the historical musical comedy The Big Map. Central Library, 350 West Georgia, at 1 1 a.m. Admission free. Info 331-3615. i3 Paul St.

Pierre Music new, locally produced shows needed to meet the station's licencing promises to the CRTC. Although much will change when VTV inherits CTV's main schedule on Sept. 1, 2001, the station will still be obligated to live up to its commitments to local programming. That means that, despite tepid ratings for programs like First Story (6,000 viewers) and On the Edge (12,000 viewers Sundays at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

combined), those shows are likely to remain. Cold Squad's average weekly audience of 25,000 is low, but VTV is committed to producing at least one hour of local drama a week which is one reason why Cold Squad will return for at least two more seasons. The defunct Double Exposure drew a more-than-respectable 47,000 viewers, despite its being matched against tough prime-time competition Tuesday nights. VTV has quietly signed an agreement to televise Vancouver Canucks hockey for at least one more season, and is negotiating for Grizzlies basketball. Some media analysts insist the station overpaid when it outbid BCTV for the rights two years ago, though Fitch notes that hockey was a constant headache for BCTV program schedulers.

That's because of the number of times it pre-empted News Hour, BCTV's big money maker. Canucks hockey is a perfect fit for VTV, however, which is still trying to establish its supper-hour newscast. Hockey gives the station a profile, ratings it would otherwise not have, and also gives it an opportunity to promote shows in its prime-time lineup that viewers might otherwise miss. The Vancouver Early Music Festival continues with several events throughout the day and evening, including two performances early and middle period of the player piano pieces by Conlon Nancarrow; an evening of John Adams works, including Gnarly Buttons and the Chamber Symphony; and late-night cabaret songs featuring mezzo-soprano Barbara Ebbeson and pianist Leslie Dala. The Nancarrow programs are at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m.

at Festival House, 1398 Cartwright, Granville Island ($5 at the door). The John Adams event is at 8 p.m.at the Arts Club Theatre 15 from 280-33 1 1). Cabaret is at Festival House Studio ($10 at the door). BCTV TOP PROGRAM: Academy Awards (March 26), 621,000 viewers (additional viewers on CHEK). TOP SERIES: ER, 1 85,000 (additional viewers on CHEK).

ODDITY: Nash Bridges's weekly audience of 1 61,000 viewers places it just behind Ally McBeal, if Cl nr. I I I "TV for B.C." fielded its strongest prime-time lineup in years, combining the cream of CTV's crop (the Academy Awards, ER, the World Figure Skating Championships and CTV Celebrate the gifts of spring with the Vancouver Women's Chorus and their ensemble, Synchronicity, at seasonal concert Let There Be Love, featuring the musical repertoire the women have prepared for the Gay and Lesbian Association International Choral Festival in July in San Jose, Calif. The program has works I I News with Lloyd Robertson) with I la string of unexpectedly solid i i 'M i mmt mt rpwrnmfrt inrliiHina Thirrl Global Top program: Super Bowl XXXIV (Jan.30), 3 1 0,000 viewers. Top series: Friends, 187,000. Oddity: Global's Sunday-night lineup of 60 Minutes, The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, The X-Files and The Practice is, bar none, the strongest of any night on any Vancouver station.

Global's prime-time lineup leans heavily toward simulcasts of U.S. network programs, particularly those on Fox. But where Fox stumbled out of the gate with its poorest fall in five years (Harsh Realm, Get Real, Time of Your Life and Ryan Caulfield: Year One all tanked) Global cov- from their upcoming CD, Sweet Inspirations, including Eagle Song, with words by Joy Harjo and music by Stephen Smith. Stay for the catered reception after the concert. Shaughnessy Heights United Church, 1550 West at 8 p.m.

Tickets 12 to $22 at Little Sisters and Harry's Off Commercial. Info 669-0992 and at ry Theatre "Fans of today's visionary Bonnie Panych Nash Bridges watch, Qnce md Again and The West Wing. The glut of decent dramas allowed BCTV to steer first-year hits Judging Amy and Family Law to its sister station, CHEK, significantly boosting that station's prime-time ratings. BCTV's complicated arrangement with CTV the longtime CTV affiliate's relationship with the network will change now that CTV owns the new VTV station meant last-minute haggling with VTV over a number of second-string CTV programs. As a result, Charmed jumped to BCTV from VTV, as Ay McBeal did the previous year.

While nowhere near the hit Ally McBeal is, the move hurt VTV because Charmed skews heavily toward VTV's young, predominantly female core audience. BCTV's prime-time audience is more mature, whereas VTV has been carving a niche with young-skewing programs like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which has a demographic to die for: young, female and free-spending. BCTV had faced its biggest challenge in years this fall with CTV programming scheduled to revert to VTV on Aug. 31, but the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission has asked that present agreements be renewed for one year while the regulator mulls another change in ownership Can West Global Communications' bid to buy BCTV and CHEK, among other stations. BCTV now enjoys a strong slate of shows from CTV and the area's dominant newscast.

The pattern across North America is that strong local news translates into strong prime-time ratings. A big audience for local news means a captive audience for promotional ads that draw attention to prime-time programs that otherwise would be overlooked. BCTVs strength in news means, for example, that it will continue to make a considerable amount of money off the game shows that follow, The Simpsons ere(j itself with strong performers from NBC (Friends, Frasier) and ABC (The Practice). Global stumbled briefly in the fall, but regained its poise this spring, thanks in large part to ABC's decision to hold NYPD Blue back until January, which meant 22 straight weeks of fresh episodes with no reruns. Coupled with the unexpected success of midseason replacements Malcolm in the Middle, Titus and even Daddio, Global finished the season with a flourish.

If Global has a weakness next year it is finding shows to replace retiring fan favourites like Beverly Hills 90210 and Parry of Five. Global will also have to fill the hole left by the recently departed Traders. Canadian-content requirements continue to be a thorn in Global's side. Global has been criticized by cultural advocates for not turning enough of its profit from U.S. simul female popsters would profit from a good listen to Laura Nyro, the shamefully overlooked singer-songwriter who paved the way for them 30 years ago.

Nyro's passion still cuts like a glistening blade," Entertainment Weekly said in 1997 of the American artist who died of ovarian cancer at the age of 49. Vancouver actors Lisa Bayliss, Annabel Kershaw and Bonnie Panych obviously agree with EW their celebration of Nyro's music, Stoned Soul Picnic (an incorrect title appeared in Thursday's events calendar), opens tonight. Fireball Arts Centre, 280 E. Cordova at 8 p.m. Tickets $20.

Info at 689-0926. Television Laurie Skreslet, the first Canadian woman to summit the mount, provides the climbing expertise when the CBC presents Everest 2000, a 90-minute special look at the highlights of the all-Canadian assault on the summit of Mount Everest led by Alberta Byron Smith. Newsworidat4 p.m. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! CHEK TOP PROGRAM: Academy Awards (March 26), 169,000 viewers. TOP SERIES: Everybody Loves Raymond, 127,000.

ODDITY: The Pretender, newly cancelled by NBC, had a surprisingly big audience here. Its 75,000 viewers was good enough to place it fourth among CHEK's most-watched shows, but Vancouver's viewer habits don't weigh in U.S. network decisions. i' fry fa SUNDAY Music 2 1st Century Guitars a program entirely made up of work for electric and bass guitars headlines the Vancouver New Music Festival, with works by Jan Berman, Tim Brady, Gordon Fitzell, Jordan Nobles, John Oliver, Ron Samworth, and the Steve Reich blowout, Electric Counterpoint for 12 guitars and two electric basses. At the Arts Club Theatre, 8 p.m.

Tickets are 15, from 280-33 1 1. Television casts back into homegrown programming, and is facing increased scrutiny from the CRTC. The cancellation of Traders too expensive, its makers say has caused a creative void that will be hard to fill. The animated Bob Margaret is a welcome, if modest, Can-con hit for Global 39,000, as opposed to Traders' 35,000 (where it laboured opposite CTV powerhouse ER). And Global has made a local investment with The Agency, a new 22-episode comedy from Vancouver producer Larry Sugar and Peace Arch Entertainment, about a Vancouver music talent agency.

But with the expected change of ownership, the station's future after next year is an open book. KVOS TOP PROGRAM: Blind Date, 50,000 viewers. TOP SERIES: Star Trek: Voyager, 74,000 viewers. ODDITY: Seinfeld reruns (40,000 viewers) outdraw new episodes of Baywatch: Hawaii Xena: Warrior Princess Relic Hunter (28,000) and V.I.P. No station in the region stirs emotions the way KVOS-TV does whenever the CRTC holds a hearing on the local market That's because companies like CHUM and Craig Broadcast Systems, which want a piece of the potentially lucrative local advertising pie, see the Bellingham, KVOS as a foreign interloper, sucking advertising revenue out of the Lower Mainland without having to meet the expensive Canadian-content minimums required of Canadian stations as a condition of licence.

From KVOS's point of view, the station is merely serving the region in its immediate vicinity. It was the first TV station in the area, and ironically is home to one of the most-watched Vancouver-based programs in To Serve and Protect, which serves a weekly audience of some 45,000 viewers. As it is, KVOS operates a bare-bones schedule that resembles a specialty channel also-ran movies, vintage TV shows, reruns of old sitcoms and moderately popular sci-fi and adventure series. Without old movies. Star Trek Voyager and Pamela Anderson Lee, KVOS might well be reduced to a test pattern.

The region's oddball station neither Vancouver fish nor Vancouver Island fowl performed better than last season, thanks to an infusion of ratings from surprise first-year hits Judging Amy, Family Law, Third Watch and The Raymond Ethel Merman West Wing. In recent years, BCTV has used its sister station in Victoria as little more than a transmitter for BCTV programming, simulcasting BCTV programs to Vancouver Island (ER, Charmed, etc.) or using else 0 IEK to show BCTV programs at different days and times third Watch, The West Wing, jThat could change dramatically, however, once the CRTC has riled on the proposed sale of BCTV and CHEK to Can West GjobaL The current thinking is that the CRTC, mindful that Victoria needs a TV station it can genuinely call its own, will approve Global's purchase of BCTV, but will insist that the broadcaster divest itself of both CKVU and CHEK. That opens tie door for Brandon, Manitoba-based Craig Broadcast Systems to buy CHEK and Toronto's CHUM Ltd. to buy CKVU. "There's no business like show businessThere's no business I know And who can name that tune without thinking of the fabulous dame Ethel Merman.

Comedians Stella Walker and Jerry Schaefer host The Merman-Off, where celebrity judges Mark Tewskbury, Kurt Browning, Jaymz Bee and Lee Maracle will evaluate everyone from singing dogs to drag queens as they perform high camp in the great tradition of broadwas biggest voice in this new hour-long variety show. Comedy Network at 9 p.m. 1 1 -1.