Network: CTV Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1978 to 1988
Broadcast Medium: Television
One of the advantages of the CTV affiliates owning their own network was their ability to agree on the creation of blocks of comparatively inexpensive Canadian daytime programming, which not only helped meet their content minimum requirements, but could generate advertising revenue because of the level of production values made possible by the upfront commitment of the stations to pay their share of the costs.
Cooking shows were a natural ingredient in this program mix, and culinary whiz Ruth Fremes was a major beneficiary of this demand. She had written a series of books under the title What’s Cooking, and CTV utilized her exceptional skills in the kitchen as the basis for a highly successful series of half-hour cooking programs that ran for many years on the network.
Produced in the studios of CFTO-TV Toronto, What’s Cooking made its debut on the network in the fall of 1978, as a daytime strip at 9:00am Monday-Friday. In the following season it moved to 9:30am, where it stayed happily for a healthy ten-year run, being seen for the last time in September 1988.
Written by Pip Wedge – February, 2003