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I’m not picking on Global or parent company Corus. Turn on a TV channel or watch a streaming service in this country and you’re bound to find U.S. content 鈥� lots of it.听

Our elbows might be up, but our eyes are firmly fixed on America’s cultural output.

While Canadians turn their noses up at U.S.-made wine听辞谤听American-grown produce, it’s not so easy to boycott made-in-America TV. Nor do we necessarily want to.听

Numeris, the Canadian organization that measures TV audience data, released a report recently that showed Canadians hadn’t followed through on vows to cancel American streaming services amid the trade war with the U.S.

“Canadians, known for their friendly and reserved nature, voiced very strong feelings after (U.S. President Donald) Trump continuously referred to Canada as the future 51st state,” the report said.

“At first, many voiced their intent to cancel or boycott American streaming services in favour of other alternatives.” But Numeris’s data showed that the reach of the top three video-on-demand services 鈥� Netflix, Prime Video and Disney Plus 鈥� was essentially unchanged among adults 18 and older in Ontario, at 53 per cent through the end of April.

“At the end of the day, the entertainment and escape these services provide seem more important than making a political point,” Numeris concluded.

And quite honestly, beyond boycotting TV altogether, it would be impossible to make such a point given the amount of American content. The U.S. has a much larger production industry than Canada and a lot more money to make shows, which means its output dwarfs whatever our producers can afford to make here. And our broadcasters have to fill their programming hours with something.听

Back in 2017, in a story praising a recent collection of Canadian dramas, my former colleague Tony Wong wrote, “The Canadian market is a 10th of the size of the American one. But the cost of producing a quality product is the same, with serialized episodes costing in the $2 million to $3 million range, which includes getting high profile stars. And then there is the constant creative drain, where American broadcasters can afford to pay much more for top quality Canadian talent.”

All that has become even truer now, with production costs rising and streaming services, with their voracious demand for content, proliferating.听

Two CBC executives made that point when I talked to them last week.听

“It definitely has become more difficult in recent years” to get funding to make TV series, said Sally Catto, CBC’s general manager for entertainment, factual and sports programming.

“Part of that is the rise in budget for these series and (also) the amount of content being generated internationally. There’s certainly more competition for international partners. There is just so much scripted content happening around the world.”

In other words, CBC isn’t the only broadcaster going to other producers, broadcasters and distributors 鈥� say Netflix 鈥� to seek funding to help make its shows.

That kind of co-production deal can work out spectacularly, as it did with “North of North,” which Netflix, CBC and APTN all chipped in to make.听

The comedy about an Inuk woman (Anna Lambe) in a fictional town in Nunavut charmed critics and audiences alike, making Netflix’s top 10 list when it debuted there in April and becoming a high performer on CBC Gem, where it launched in January. It has already been renewed for a second season, despite the expense of filming in Iqaluit.听

The CBC is in a different position from its commercial counterparts, Corus, Rogers and Bell Media. As a government-funded public broadcaster, it has a mandate to provide programming that is “predominantly and distinctively Canadian,” to quote the Broadcasting Act. So its 2025-26 season announcement earlier this month presented a range of Canadian shows, including dramas, comedies, documentaries, factual entertainment and kids’ fare.听

Still, there was some surprise that, although the broadcaster touted the return of titles like “Saint-Pierre,” “Son of a Critch,” “Small Achievable Goals,” “Allegiance,” “Murdoch Mysteries” and “Heartland,” no new scripted series made the list.听

According to Catto and executive vice-president Barbara Williams, that was just a matter of timing.

A few shows they planned to announce at the annual upfront, as these seasonal showcases are called, were still locking in funding and casting. “We want to just assure everybody we are fully in the scripted business going forward,” Williams said.听

Other Canadian broadcasters also have new scripted shows in the pipeline.

For instance, “Private Eyes West Coast,” a spinoff of the popular Global TV show “Private Eyes,” is in production in B.C. for Corus. (The dearth of scripted Corus shows announced to date isn’t such a surprise when you consider Corus went before the CRTC last month to ask to funnel more of the money it’s required to spend on dramas and comedies into news, lifestyle and reality shows.)

Rogers, meanwhile, will bring Canadian-made “Law & Order 色色啦” and “Hudson & Rex” back to Citytv, although the only new Canadian series touted at its upfront was an unscripted offering, a Canuck version of “The Price Is Right” starring Howie Mandel, which will likely take the place of the paused “Canada’s Got Talent.”听

Bell Media, on the other hand, announced an ambitious slate of scripted series for Crave and CTV. Among them: a “steamy romance” called “Heated Rivalry,” from “Letterkenny” writer Jacob Tierney; “Slo Pitch,” a comedy from Elliot Page’s production company; 色色啦-set nightclub drama “Seoul Palace”; fantasy series “Sigil,” co-produced by “Reservation Dogs” star Devery Jacobs; “The Borderline,” starring Stephen Amell (鈥淪uits LA”) and Hamza Haq (鈥淭ransplant”); “Yaga,” which draws on the myth of the witch Baba Yaga; an as-yet-untitled series from Mr. Letterkenny himself, Jared Keeso; plus a co-commission with USA Network, the crime procedural听 “Anna Pigeon.”听

I haven’t even touched on all the docuseries, unscripted shows and reality competitions being offered by Canadian broadcasters. Catto said unscripted shows are as important as scripted in “sharing听the stories of real Canadians living their lives in this country.鈥�

I can’t contradict her; it’s just that scripted is where my preference lies.

Of course, along with the challenge of getting Canadian TV shows made is the challenge of getting Canadians to watch them.听

Numeris hasn’t provided lists of the highest-rated TV shows in Canada since September 2022, but back then the top 30 was dominated by American content, with the exception of Blue Jays baseball, CTV news broadcasts and “The Amazing Race Canada,” itself a spinoff of a U.S. reality show.听

To Williams, it’s not so much a question of Canadian viewers not wanting to watch homegrown shows as it is “the overwhelming amount of choice that our audiences in English Canada, in particular, have at their fingertips.听So cutting through and rising above and finding an audience, it takes a lot of work. You’ve got to have a great show and then you’ve got to have some strong marketing, and then you hope to have great schedule placement, if you’re talking traditional television, or placement on a streaming service’s front page.

“But I don’t see it as a disregard for Canadian content,” Williams added. “I just see that we are competing with the world.”

Indeed we are, but I hope we never stop striving to make our own comedies and dramas.

I agree wholeheartedly with Catto and Williams that it’s important to highlight stories from all over this country, both geographically and culturally, whether it’s a show about a South Asian police officer in Surrey, B.C. (鈥淎llegiance”); a budding comedian growing up in Newfoundland (鈥淪on of a Critch”); a single mother in search of herself in Nunavut (鈥淣orth of North”); or a gender-fluid, South Asian millennial in 色色啦 (“Sort Of”).

“When you live beside the United States, (you) have a huge influx of content from that country that is similar enough to feel very accessible and very comfortable, and yet it’s not us,” said Williams. “That’s why we need to have a creative community that is uniquely Canadian, and content that is dreamed up by people who have lived it here in Canada and want to share their experience.”