Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

The "Muslim Archie Bunker" is a Hit!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007

As reported here last week, the CBC has launched a new show called "Little Mosque on the Prairie," about a Muslim family in central Canada. Well, the ratings are in and it's a huge hit, the biggest show on the network IN A DECADE! This is great news, helped, no doubt, by the camels in downtown Toronto last week. Can a U.S. network be far behind? Here's the report from the IHT:

When it comes to producing a funny television show or movie in Canada, producers here have a reliable stable of topics — French-English relations, urban-rural dynamics and anything that involves a bumbling politician or the United States.

But Islam — something of a third rail of comedy throughout the Western world — did not make the list, which is one reason the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's new situation comedy, "Little Mosque on the Prairie," is attracting such attention here.

"It is a risk doing a sitcom about what can be considered a very touchy subject," said Kirstine Layfield, executive director of network programming at the CBC.

But the series premiere last Tuesday attracted 2.1 million viewers, impressive in a country where an audience of one million is a runaway hit. The CBC has not had a show draw an audience of that size in a decade, according to the network.

Posted by B Feiler at 3:25 AM
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