A Canadian answer to the USA's
Comedy Central, The Comedy Network went on the air in October, 1997. Initially, the station was subject to a fairly limited schedule: Episodes of British television were common (
Mr. Bean and
The Baldy Man), and the airtime was
full of
Just For Laughs comedy festival performances,
Open Mike With Mike Bullard (a shoestring-budgeted talk show that was so
Adored by the Network that it aired for
eight seasons),
Saturday Night Live repeats (aired from the beginning), and other older TV shows.
Eventually, the British programs were mainly dropped, and the network started showcasing both original programming (
Kevin Spencer,
Butch Patterson: Private Dick,
Corner Gas), and programming from
Comedy Central (including
The Daily Show and
The Colbert Report, but pretty much anything from that network has ended up on The Comedy Network for a while). It's also become yet another home to endless repeats of
The Simpsons, as well as numerous Canadian-original shows (to meet with Canadian Content guidelines, and to create profit for the station, which owns some of these shows).
Any rebranding the network has taken on has occurred slowly. Expect to see various CTV or Comedy Network-based programming on great repetition, and with lots of ad time.
Corner Gas got it, and it's successors (
Hiccups and
Dan For Mayor) got it as well. Canadian Content laws plus
Adored by the Network counts for a
lot. In 2012, the network also started airing a Canadian-made revival of
Match Game too.
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