The CRTC has ordered Alliance Atlantis-owned History Television to stop running CSI: New York on its cable channel because, well, CSI: New York has nothing to do with history.
The company’s argument — and I’ll try not to laugh as I write this — is that CSI: New York deals with a “post-9/11 environment” and since 9/11 is history, this makes sense somehow.
The CRTC saw right through that, noting that just because an episode or two might have had something to do with 9/11 doesn’t make this a history program. They’ve given the network until Jan. 1 to pull the show.
This isn’t the first time a stretch of the rules has irked the CRTC. Ten years ago, CBC Newsworld began airing episodes of sketch-comedy shows This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce, arguing that because the shows dealt with topical, newsworthy topics, they fall within Newsworld’s license. The CRTC disagreed, ordering Newsworld to pull the shows. The CBC then asked nicely for the CRTC to amend Newsworld’s license “slightly” to allow for them, but were rejected.
If Newsworld can’t air fake news, History can’t air cheap CSI reruns. Instead, we’ll just have to settle for watching them on the 17 other cable channels that air them ten times a day.