March 31 1993
Acting Royalty Gathered in Tribute to 'Great Kate'
Sid Adilman, Toronto Star
Winning Partners: Fresh from its recently renewed three-year co- production deal for science programming with Japan's public broadcaster NHK, TVOntario, notes its chairman Peter Herrndorf, also has "major relationships with PBS and some individual PBS stations, such as WTTW in Chicago, a station quite a lot like ours, and with our provincial counterpart, Radio-Quebec.
"Our sense is that we are going to do a lot of work with Radio- Quebec over the next five or six years. It's about the same size as us and has much the same sensibility. And, interestingly enough, the politics of all this are not an issue."
Cross-border co-ventures are even more important to TVOntario now that it must cut at least $1 million from an annual $85 million budget, as part of Queens Park's attack on the provincial deficit.
Several TVO shows will be axed because of the budget cut and to accommodate a nightly current affairs show Herrndorf wants to begin this fall, likely with host Steve Paikin and at a cost the first season of about $2 million.
The goodbye group includes The Science Edition with host Stuart McLean. Others, such as Prisoners Of Gravity, with host Rick Green, will have fewer new episodes next season. Some such as The Human Edge might continue but without an on-air host.