Source: Globe and Mail

CTV's cancellation of Canadian Idol this season means that nearly 650 people across Canada won't be able to find short-term work with the reality show as they did last year.

Insight Productions, which produced the show for CTV, hired 650 production workers in numerous temporary jobs - from cameramen, writers and editors to production assistants, electricians and drivers - for Canadian Idol last summer, according to John Brunton, who runs Insight and was an executive producer on Idol.

"A lot of people will have a very difficult time being absorbed by the production community," Brunton said.

The jobs were spread across the country for the audition shows held in 10 cities. Most of the contract work, though, was concentrated in Ontario.

CTV blamed the poor economic climate for the cancellation, indicating the slowdown in advertising. But CTV also specified that the show was merely taking a rest and that it may return. The Idol franchise has similarly taken a break in other countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, only to return. TVA's Star Académie, another Idol-like talent contest, is coming back in 2009 after several years off the air.

But the removal of Idol from CTV's summer schedule will create ripple effects throughout the production community, which is already bracing for a slowdown.

"We were hoping that we would survive all that. It's not a cheap program to produce ... and requires significant advertiser support. I suspect that at the end of the day in this financial crunch, they [CTV executives] probably couldn't make the numbers work," Brunton said. Because of a confidentiality agreement, he couldn't specify the cost of the series.

Insight had been in talks with CTV throughout the fall to find ways to cut costs. But Insight only learned of the cancellation on Monday.

Industry watchers had begun to see signs of the series waning last year compared with previous seasons, as ratings dipped well below 1.5 million, as opposed to the two million viewers it regularly drew per episode in the past.

Still, Brunton said that "the advertiser support was spectacular for the program. The ratings that it was generating were fantastic. I really, truly think that the one single reason that we can't come back right now is just that the advertising dollars in Canada are drying up very quickly. ... I think that there is a good chance that it will come back."

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