This story was first published in January 2019.
Vulture is republishing it in honor of the series finale of Schitts Creek.
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ButSchittsdidnt just happen overnight.
I remember one executive saying, We cant wait to get our hands on this.
This did not make Levy happy, however.
The father and son also pitched some major American cable networks, but with less success.
HBO and Showtime did not respond to it, Eugene Levy says.
The CBC, like ABC in America, is a somewhat broad-skewing, over-the-air broadcast connection.
The timing was right.
He and his dad brought it to us and said, Were doing this show with the CBC.
Weve got so much of the budget covered so far.
We need X to finish it off, Schwartz recalls.
We said yes and off we went, Schwartz said.
It was like two fledgling entities starting to spread their wings together a little bit, he says.
It seemed to make a lot of sense.
And the show has remained popular ever since.Schitts Creekhas ranked as the No.
1 scripted Canadian comedy on prime-time television in Canada since it launched in 2015, Catto says.
Not everybody knew how to get Pop, he says.
So the awareness factor in the States was not, I would say, extremely high.
In fact, I wouldnt say it was high at all.
In fact, I would say it was kinda low.
He doesnt blame the cable web connection; quite the opposite.
They did an excellent job getting the word out.
But the problem was people had to be able to find Pop on the dial.
Behind the scenes, Schwartz and his team had a multipronged plan to woo audiences toSchitts Creek.
Most shows, once they hit season four, the networks not marketing them anymore.
Theyve got other priorities.
We just keep doubling down on the marketing.
Pops efforts to promoteSchitts Creekpaid off almost immediately.
Counting nonlinear viewers, Pop estimatesSchitts Creekreached 3.3 million viewers on the networks various platforms last season.
The Levys also think the Netflix bump is undeniable, and goes beyond ratings.
Im feeling like the show is finally getting its nose above the surface of the water.
Whenever the season drops [on Netflix], it feels like weve just relaunched.
We see a lot of social-media activity, he says.
Schitts Creekisnt the first, or only, cable show to experience a boost from Netflix.
Most famously, AMCsBreaking Badsaw itsratings surgea couple years after it hit the streamer in 2011.
He even admits that there are a lot of people out there that think its a Netflix show.
But Schwartz ultimately is fine with losing a bit of brand exclusivity if it meansSchitts Creekreaches more eyeballs.
