ml> Diverse fall lineup with eight comedies, three dramas, three reality series, two live event series, and exclusive national NHL games Peter Pan Live! joins lineup alongside returning blockbuster music events, the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards and CMAs
Smash-hit comedy series 2 Broke Girls and Two and a Half Men to air in strip, weeknights from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.
TORONTO (June 3, 2014) With four consecutive years of growth*, City continues to deliver world-class content with this year's most diverse schedule of exciting new shows, live events, and NHL programming joining a seasoned stable of returning hits. Hayden Mindell, Vice President of Television Programming & Content, Rogers Media, today unveils City's 2014/15 fall and mid-season prime-time schedule to the Canadian advertising community during the annual Rogers Upfront event.
With the most competitive schedule to date, from hockey to comedies, dramas to reality, the 2014/15 City schedule truly has something for everyone, said Mindell. Featuring the most diverse variety of programming on any conventional network in Canada, we are offering our viewers the programming they want most, while delivering to our clients reliable and consistent audiences each and every week.
Up five per cent year over year in audiences P2+*, the City fall/mid-season schedule builds upon a successful foundation of 17 returning series and events with the addition of two new dramas, one new comedy series, and one reality program. Newly acquired programming for the 2014/15 season includes scripted series Scorpion, Black-ish, and Backstrom, alongside new reality series, Utopia, and the new live musical event special Peter Pan Live! All-new seasons of sophomore original series The Bachelor Canada and Package Deal join the prime-time lineup, along with two NHL games each week Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays and Hometown Hockey on Sundays.
I'm excited for City to join in a time-honoured Canadian tradition this year with the addition of Hockey Night in Canadaand Hometown Hockey, said Mindell. Hockey is the most coveted content in Canada, and we have PVR-proofed Saturday and Sunday nights on City to become must-see TV for all Canadians.
Doubling-down on live events programming this year, City remains Canada's leader in comedy with three of the top five comedies in the country last season, including the #1 new comedy Mom*. With the highest skewing percentage of prime-time viewers under 55 of any conventional network in Canada at 72 per cent*, City is staying true to its younger, urban-oriented audiences through the 2014/15 season by continuing to deliver the programming that most resonates with these viewers, including returning hits 2 Broke Girls, New Girl, and The Mindy Project.
Other series returning for the 2014/15 season are The Bachelor, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Hell's Kitchen, The Middle, Mike & Molly, Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, Revenge, and Scandal.
For the remainder of 2014, City continues to be the home to some of the most top-rated live musical event series in the country, including the Country Music Association Awards (CMA Awards) and CMA Country Christmas, as well as Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve with
Ryan Seacrest. The highest rated program in network history*, the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards returns to the City mid-season schedule in 2015, along with GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!.
Following the double-digit growth of the 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. timeslots last year with the addition of beloved comedy Modern Family in strip (up 25 per cent nationally and 13 per cent in the P2+ and A25-54 demos, respectively*), City continues to offer audiences the programming consistency and stability they value by extending this strategy to the 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. timeslots with strip episodes of fan-favourites 2 Broke Girls and Two and a Half Men.
Fall premiere dates will be announced in the coming months; shows acquired but not yet listed on the schedule will premiere at a later date in the 2014/15 season.
City Fall Schedule
All times ET/PT; s = simulcast
Monday
8 p.m. 2 Broke Girls (s)
8:30 p.m. Mom (s)
9 p.m. Scorpion (s) *NEW*
Tuesday
8 p.m. Utopia (s) *NEW*
9 p.m. New Girl (s)
9:30 p.m. The Mindy Project (s)
Wednesday
8 p.m. Hell's Kitchen (s)
9 p.m. Modern Family (s)
9:30 p.m. Black-ish (s) *NEW*
Thursday
8 p.m. The Bachelor Canada *City Original Program*
9 p.m. Scandal (s)
Friday
8 p.m. Package Deal *City Original Program*
8:30 p.m. The Middle
9 p.m. Utopia (s) *NEW*
Saturday
7-10 p.m. NHL: Hockey Night in Canada *NEW to City*
Sunday
7-10 p.m. NHL: Hometown Hockey *NEW to City*
10 p.m. Revenge (s)
**NOTE: 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards, The Country Music Awards, and Peter Pan Live! (*NEW*)will join City's fall schedule date and time TBC.
New Series Descriptions
s = simulcast
ml> FALL NEW COMEDIES
BLACK-ISH
30-minute scripted comedy series
Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT (s)
National broadcast
Black-ish depicts the life of Andre Dre' Johnson, who has a great job, a beautiful wife, four kids, and a colonial home in the burbs. But has success brought too much assimilation for this black family? With the help of Dre's dad, the family attempts to establish a sense of cultural identity that honours their past while also embracing the future.
PRODUCTION COMPANY: ABC/Disney
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/WRITER: Kenya Barris
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: James Griffiths
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Larry Wilmore (The Bernie Mac Show), Anthony Anderson (The Departed), Laurence Fishburne (Hannibal), Helen Sugland (Akeelah and the Bee), Peter Principato (The Joneses), Paul Young (Mad Max), Brian Dobbins (Matumbo Goldberg), and newcomer Tom Russo
CAST: Dre Johnson (Anthony Anderson, Guys W
