TORONTO – Global Television announced today that it has cancelled The Mike Bullard Show, effective immediately.
Doug Hoover, senior vice president, programming and promotions for the Global Television Network, announced today that the show has been cancelled and that Bullard and the company have severed their ties.
The most version of his late-night show (Bullard had a relatively successful six-season run on CTV and The Comedy Network and won a Gemini Award) on Global was plagued by guests that too few viewers recognized, if they knew them at all, which resulted in dismal ratings. For example, one evening last fall saw the "Grizzly Bear Suit Guy" from North Bay as the show’s lead guest.
"Unfortunately, and in spite of a major promotion effort by Global, the program has not demonstrated the degree of success that merits a continued run,” said Hoover in today’s release. “We continue to hold Mike in the highest esteem and wish him much well-deserved success in the future,” he concluded.
CanWest signed Bullard to a multi-year agreement in August of 2024 after his contract with CTV had lapsed. The new contract was to see Bullard play a role not only on television but in CanWest’s newspapers as well, something which never materialized.
"With Mike Bullard joining the Global family, we take another major step in our vision to develop quality Canadian content and Canadian stars and share them with a worldwide audience," said Rick Camilleri, COO, CanWest Global, back in August.
“We are excited by the addition of Mike Bullard to the Global lineup,” added Hoover then. “The late night show is a strategic acquisition and is another building block in the architecture of our programming schedule.”
However in January, after just over a month in production, and with the show struggling mightily to attract viewers, CanWest parachuted in a new producer, David Rosen, to try and rescue it. Rosen has a long history in Canadian television producing drama series and specials, but he had little appreciable effect on the show’s viewership.
"CanWest remains firmly committed to the production of Canadian variety and entertainment programming that showcases Canadian talent, and we intend to continue to pursue aggressively our interest and support of our late-night schedule," explained Camilleri today.
"We have a great production unit that is now developing a different type of program and we expect to experiment with the timeslot over the coming weeks. We still consider Mike to be one of the country’s foremost comedic talents and are confident that he will meet with great future success,” he concluded.
However, the cancellation of the show after just over three months on the air must be a major embarrassment to both the comedian and Global.
It remains to be seen what will happen with Bullard, too, since he burned his bridges on the way out the door at CTV. In an interview with The Toronto Star in November, Bullard accused CTV executives of not giving him the support he deserved, forcing him to drown in corporate politics. He was quoted in the newspaper saying that when he voiced concerns, “The response was always, ‘Mike’s nuts.’ I was the scapegoat for every mistake and didn’t get credit for anything else,” he said.
“I used to run a department with 350 people and I have never seen anything in my life as dysfunctional as what I have seen since I got into network television – sales people who don’t sell, producers who don’t produce, bookers who don’t book,” Bullard told The Star, referring to his days as a Bell Canada manager and at CTV.
Bullard also lamented the fact that CTV executives almost never came to the set in downtown Toronto and that his own producer missed some shows. He also said he had to pay his own airfare when visiting CTV affiliate stations – a charge CTV senior vice-president Ed Robinson cast doubts on in The Star story.
As for his CTV producer, executive John Brunton told The Star in that November article that sure, he missed some shows, because he oversees Insight Productions, which has several other programs to look after, too and had this to say about Bullard: “On this issue of people working for him, you know, leadership starts at the top,” Brunton told the newspaper. “And the dedication and heart and soul that people put into their jobs has a lot to do with the way they are treated. His bitterness is consistent with his bitterness over life in general. So I’m not surprised except that I don’t understand how he thinks his position of bitterness, in any way, is going to help him in his career.”
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