‘ET Canada’ shuts down

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“ET Canada” has been canceled, with its production company pointing the finger at a “challenging advertising environment” as the cause.

The show, also known as “Entertainment Tonight Canada,” has aired for 18 seasons in the Canadian market and airs on Global TV, which is owned by Corus Entertainment.

“ET Canada” will air its last new edition Oct. 6, 2023. Global TV will air repeats until Oct. 31, 2023. It’s not clear what will happen with its timeslot, though Global says it has no plans to launch a replacement entertainment news program.

It’s not clear how many people will lose their jobs, but Corus did acknowledge that on-air hosts are impacted.

“The costs of producing a daily entertainment newsmagazine show in a challenging advertising environment have led to this decision,” Corus said in a statement.

“ET Canada” is produced in association with CBS Media Ventures, which produces and distributes the U.S. version of the show, known as simply “ET” or “Entertainment Tonight.”

The U.S. version will not be directly affected by the Canadian edition’s closure.

Unlike “ET Canada,” the U.S. version of the show is syndicated, meaning it is not a network-level show. Instead, CBS sells the rights to the show to one station in each market. These stations then air the program and fills most commercial breaks with advertising it sells. CBS typically holds back some spots that it sells itself.

Local stations aim to produce enough ads to cover the costs of licensing the program and certain local overhead and, ultimately, turn a profit. “ET” uses the funds it receives from syndication fees and advertising it sells to cover the costs of producing the show, which includes paying talent and editorial staff and covering production costs.

Here too the goal is cover these costs and make a profit above that.

Syndication can often be very lucrative for distributors and the production companies who own shows.

“ET Canada,” meanwhile, uses a much different model; it doesn’t generate syndication fees and therefore is heavily reliant on advertising revenue.

While both the U.S. and Canadian editions of the show have invested heavily in digital as linear TV audiences shrink.

A variety of economic pressures, including a shift to streaming and rising inflation, have made it more difficult to sell advertising in general.