Axing of Bullard not a surprise to TV insiders

Dan Brown

TORONTO - Mike Bullard, Canada's only network late-night talk show host, is out of a job.

That's because the Global Television Network announced Friday it is cancelling The Mike Bullard Show , effective immediately.

The program, which Global had intended to be its flagship late-night series, had struggled in the ratings since it debuted in November.

"It's no surprise that it's been cancelled," said Jaimie Hubbard, the editor of the Canadian edition of TV Guide .

Global dropped the show because Bullard had been unable to pull in a significant audience. "It was purely a ratings-driven business decision," said David Hamilton, the Global executive in charge of publicity.

On Global, Bullard averaged 72,000 viewers per night. When he left CTV, where he had been host of Open Mike for six years, he was drawing about 129,000 viewers.

Hamilton was unable to explain why Bullard's audience didn't follow him to the new network. "I'm a little unsure of the reason why it didn't catch on," he said, adding that Global did not see any reason to believe the numbers would improve.

Industry observers noted that the avuncular comedian had his work cut out for him. Not only was he up against David Letterman and Jay Leno, but when he left CTV his former bosses also replaced him an American import, Jon Stewart's highly popular faux newscast, The Daily Show .

"For one reason or another, a big hunk of the audience just didn't follow him. And CTV was able to magnify that problem by putting Jon Stewart on against him. And that just drove the ratings into the ground," said Sean Davidson, the news editor for Playback , the trade magazine that covers the Canadian television and film industry

In the press release announcing its decision, Global stressed it had tried its hardest to get behind Bullard. Hamilton said Global's effort to promote the host had been "strong and consistent."

But there had been signs along the way that Bullard was not catching on with viewers. In December, Global added veteran producer David Rosen to the show's team.

Rosen's assignment was to tinker with the show to make it flow better. Industry observers said the changes didn't work - partly because the late-night arena is so crowded.

"It's a tough format, no question. There's a ton of competition in late night and in order for you to bring an audience you have to have a stellar lineup of guests," Hubbard said.

Bullard's move to Global may have also unrealistically raised ratings expectations. The truth, insiders say, is that he was only a middling success at CTV.

"I think it's debatable how well he was working on CTV," said Davidson. The numbers for Open Mike were never "through the roof," he added.

When he left CTV, Bullard was very vocal about his dissatisfaction with the network. In Davidson's view, burning his bridges in such a public way did not help win him any new fans.

"It certainly cost him some popularity points with viewers in general," he noted.

At the time, Bullard said he opted to jump to Global because the network promised not to put his show on hiatus for lengthy periods, as had been the practice at CTV. Consequently, industry watchers say, the production costs for The Mike Bullard Show were higher. "When he was at CTV, he wasn't making as many episodes per year. So the show was cheaper to make," said Davidson.

As for the future, Global says only that it will "experiment" with its late-night slot. Most of the current production team will remain in place; Hamilton confirms that Rosen will be a part of that team.

According to Hubbard, the cancellation is not a sign that it's impossible for a Canadian to be a success in late night. "I think we've seen enough good production on Canadian shows and God knows there's enough talent around that yeah, I think you probably could find somebody who would do well in a late-night talk-show format," he said.

But others aren't so sure. "We're just not very good at it," countered Davidson, although he notes that Ed the Sock's talk show has been successfully marketed around the world.

Davidson believes Bullard may want to look into radio as a possible future home for his talents, or a group of television stations like the CHUM family. He doesn't see Bullard getting another chance at a network gig.

"Unless he has a friend at CBC, I have a hard time picturing that."

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