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CTV Loses Another Series

© Jael Mehr

Little Men was a joint venture between Canada's CTV network and the USA's PAX-TV. For whatever reason, Canada delayed airing Little Men for a year, even though, by the time Canada began airing the show, a good chunk of the second season was already in the can. The cancellation is not very surprising -- Little Men pulls in an average 600,000 viewing households a week. Chances are the series would have been cancelled long ago if it were on a major network -- being on a small family-oriented network and CTV has been a definite plus for the show.

Little Men, for those who have never seen it, was a Canadian-made spin-off of the recent film, Little Men, which was one of a number of versions of the Louisa May Alcott novels that follow Jo March Bhaer into marriage and beyond. Except for Michelle Rene Thomas (in the role of Jo Bhaer), all the major characters are played by Canadians. This is most likely to conform to the Canadian content laws the show has to meet to be eligible for CTV involvement.

The show had potential, but unfortunately, people just don't seem to be interested in yet another period piece. There is a fan effort underway to save the show, but this is eerily reminiscent of the fan effort to save Another World. While Little Men (despite lower ratings), has a better chance of salvation, the fact that two major networks have already pulled out of the show is not a good sign. The current push is for CTV to consider putting out more seasons on it's own, but that is highly unlikely. CTV is cancelling left and right, and if there is no foreign investment (like with the Due South spin-off), CTV won't play that game.

Little Men was a valiant effort. It was one of the few CTV co-produced series in the last few years to actually make two seasons (although the vote is still out on why CTV waited so long to start airing episodes). But, it didn't have what it takes to succeed. The fan base, although dedicated, was almost non-existent, and the show didn't fare well in either country. That's not too surprising in Canada, though, where Little Men airs at 8:00 PM on Saturday night, opposite CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, which is sacred in many households and keeps CTV's ratings down for that time. It's also where the network is more likely to stick shows that they really couldn't care less about, because they know they'll go under in a year. La Femme Nikita was able to perform on Saturday both because it was on at 10:00 PM (immediately following HNC) and because it had what it took to pull in the hockey fans. Little Men, which is more likely to appeal to former Road to Avonlea fans looking for a fix than anything else, had neither the star quality nor the storylines to pull in the needed viewers.

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