How to build a Canadian awards show

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Norm Macdonald was on a train out of Los Angeles the other day, patched in to a conference call and trying to give feedback on a prospective comedy bit for the upcoming Canadian Screen Awards, when the long arm of the law caught up with him. As three other writers and the show's producer, Barry Avrich, listened in, a railway ticket taker chastised Macdonald for sitting in a section reserved for people with disabilities. A scuffle seemed to erupt; words were exchanged, some of which sounded possibly inappropriate for a family-friendly newspaper, and then the line went dead.

"It's like a radio drama!" one of the writers exclaimed with a chuckle, before his line also cut out. Eventually, the writers reconvened on the call. Macdonald was heading to a stand-up gig in San Diego; his writing partner, Steve O'Donnell, whose credits include Jimmy Kimmel Live, was in Los Angeles; Steve Patterson (CBC's The Debaters) was in Kitchener for a stand-up gig of his own that night; and comedy veteran Briane Nasimok was in a conference room at Avrich's office in Toronto's Little Italy.

They had 10 days before the show, which celebrates the year's best in Canadian film and TV, would go live from the Sony Centre in downtown Toronto this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CBC, hosted by Macdonald.

Among other issues, they were still trying to figure out the best pairings for the celebrity presenters, who include Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, The Book of Negroes's Aunjanue Ellis and Lyriq Bent, Rick Mercer, Helen Shaver, Mohawk Girls's Brittany LeBorgne and 19-2's Jared Keeso.

Avrich reminded the writers that the show will have a thrust stage extending into the audience, to give a "nightclub feel" to the broadcast. "It's almost like a mosh pit," he explained.

Patterson quipped: "It's a comedy catwalk."

"Where are we with the monologue?" Avrich asked.

Macdonald had not yet dialled back in, so O'Donnell spoke on his behalf.

"Norm is going to be more of a cheerleader, more quirky and odd than the Don Rickles zingers [for which he is known]. Though, he's got a nine-year-old in the audience," – Vancouver-born Jacob Tremblay is up for the best actor CSA for his role in Room – "he's going to have to go after him."

Avrich laughed and noted that the advertising tag line for this year's show is "Stars will be born. People will be offended." He said: "I'm certainly okay with the irreverence, and I'm certainly okay with it having more of a Golden Globes feel than an Oscar feel."

Macdonald was on the line by then, and he offered his opinion on Ricky Gervais, who spent the Golden Globes show roasting everyone in the room. "I don't really like insulting people when it's their night," he said. "So, over all, it'll be fun, silly jokes. I think we could do a couple of jokes with the upcoming election in the United States and the recent election in Canada, how distinct they are."

Patterson piped up: "We've got a lot of references to [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau right now. Certainly, the CBC is very happy there's a Liberal government. We've written a lot of stuff reflecting the new government. Sometimes we have fun with it, sometimes we make fun of it, but it's along those lines – whether Catherine O'Hara cares if there's gender parity in cabinet …"

"Yeah, the diversity issue," Avrich said. "We talked about this at length in the last meeting. I think the Oscars overplayed it."

Speaking to his four white male writers, he said: "I think we've proven, not only with our presenters but just the overall feel and complexion of the show, that we're the more diverse show that's happening."

As the call rolled along, the comparisons to U.S. awards shows continued. The Canadian Screen Awards may set out to celebrate this country's unique vision. But, like a film festival partygoer who spends most of their time looking over the shoulder of the person they're talking to, the production of the CSAs merely underlines how much of the industry remains oriented southward. One joke the writers were mulling was a parody of the Academy Awards broadcast's heavy use of text on the screen: Maybe, Avrich said, Macdonald could throw to a TV screen that was all but papered over with text?

Sometimes, keeping Oscar in mind can be helpful for more than just comedy. In constructing this year's show, Avrich said, he pored over the minute-by-minute viewing numbers of this year's Academy Awards and last year's Canadian Screen Awards to figure out what precisely prompted people to change the channel. "I think anybody who's producing live television today has to be a scientist, and be so meticulous about the pacing of a show."

Viewers' fickleness has intensified, at least for the CSAs: In 2013, average viewership was 756,000, or about 26 per cent of the 2.9 million who tuned in to at least part of the show; for last year's show, the average audience had dropped to 575,000, or 22 per cent of the 2.6 million who sampled it.

"In building the show, I've got to do two things," Avrich explained. "I've got to have a hell of a first act – packed with stars, packed with excitement. Secondly – and the Oscars did this very well – I'm constantly pumping what's coming up. They did 'more from Chris Rock, more from Chris Rock.' So I'm doing that like crazy on the show this year."

One thing that pretty much everyone agreed on was that viewers hate when winners get played off by aggressive music. Still, the show doesn't have the same latitude of the Oscars, which regularly blows through its three-hour time allocation: It has to be done by 10 p.m., to make way for CBC's flagship news program.

"We don't want to get in the way of The National. God forbid!" Avrich said.

"We have a line about that in the show," Nasimok reminded him. "You don't [mess] with Peter Mansbridge."