Not End of an Era, But End of a 6+ Year Period
Whenever I would travel to Canada, I would make a point to watch the Canadian variety show Open Mike With Mike Bullard. Let's face it, you can't see it back at home. (I would watch The Weather Network for the same reason.)

After my last trip to Canada in July, I signed up for the mailing list for the Open Mike show. Funny thing, I never got any traffic from that list.

Now I know why.

Mike Bullard's contract with CTV expired shortly after completing his sixth season of Open Mike with Mike Bullard, at which time he began talks with Global to move his show to their network. In August 2003, he signed a multi-year deal with Global to host a new show on their network that would be similar to Open Mike....Since its debut, the ratings for The Mike Bullard Show weren't very good. The show pulled in 96,000 viewers on its first night, but that number dropped to 54,000 on its second night....After only 60 shows aired over 13 weeks, Doug Hoover, Global's senior vice-president of programming, announced in a press release on March 12, 2004, that the network had cancelled the show due to poor ratings. The show's overall weekly average throughout its run was only 71,600 viewers, a very disappointing number, especially considering the fact that Bullard averaged 129,000 viewers back when he hosted Open Mike and that The Daily Show on CTV had consistently beaten Bullard in the ratings since the show's debut....

The CBC's Dan Brown expressed an interesting viewpoint back in November 2003:

Mike Bullard's new talk show, aptly titled The Mike Bullard Show, debuted on Global this week. Bullard's first interview was with a B-list American star named Joely Fisher....

...When you're starting a new show on a new network, first guests matter. When David Letterman restarted his late-night career on CBS in 1993, that honour went to Bill Murray. It was an important choice because of the symbolism.

You see, the star of Stripes and Groundhog Day had been Letterman's debut guest during his run on NBC, so his presence on CBS stressed continuity with the past. By having Murray appear on Late Show, Letterman wordlessly indicated that even though he had a new corporate master, he was the same old Dave at heart....

Why not have a genuine Canadian icon as the premier guest on Canada's only late-night talk show? Was Wayne Gretzky not available? And if he wasn't, how about Stompin' Tom Connors? If not Connors, why not Mike Myers? After all, he's been promoting the hell out of his new movie, The Cat in the Hat, lately. Doesn't anybody famous and Canadian owe Bullard a favour?

You can see where I'm going with my rhetorical questions. Gretzky or Connors or Myers or just about any other Canadian celebrity would have sent a powerful signal. It would say to the viewing public: The Mike Bullard Show is different: it's the only place in late night where you're guaranteed to get a regular dose of Canadiana.

Such a guest would have set Bullard's new program apart, rather than making it seem more like his American competitors. I don't believe Bullard can win the ratings game by aping Letterman and Leno. I would have chosen a big-name Canadian as the inaugural guest not because I'm a cultural nationalist; it's just smart programming....