I openly confess that I never caught Open Mike with Mike Bullard on CTV or The Mike Bullard Show on Global. I certainly knew of the shows, and caught ads for the two shows about a billion times, but I never tuned in.
Even though I'm not a Mike Bullard fan, I feel compelled to come to his defence. His XM satellite radio show was recently cancelled, and this news got an tiny little write-up in the Star. Here's the quote from The Toronto Star that I disagree with. "Mike Bullard also has two failed television shows under his belt, Open Mike on CTV and Global's The Bullard Show".
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Open Mike with Mike Bullard wasn't a failed television show. As I understand it, it was a rare Canadian late night success story creating content for both CTV and the Comedy Network. In the summer of 2003, Bullard's contract with CTV expired and he signed with Global as a free agent. That doesn't qualify as a "failed television show".
The Mike Bullard Show, however, was a failure no matter how you slice it. I attended a taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien back in February 2004 and the press couldn't get over the fact we were lining up around the corner in freezing cold temperatures while Bullard's tapings were nearly empty. I'm partly responsible for Bullard's television failure, but so far, that failure is singular.
