Specs -- Canuck or Yank?

Q. To get into TV writing you have to write spec scripts. But to get into Canadian TV, should you write specs for Canadian shows? One Canadian and one American? Or does it matter?

You should write specs of shows you are pretty sure people are watching.

Canadian showrunners and network execs watch American shows. American showrunners don't watch Canadian shows. (Though they ought to watch Slings and Arrows on Sundance. And Corner Gas on WGN. And they probably watched DeGrassi Junior High when they were in high school, oh, about nine years ago.)

If you're not planning to show your spec to American shows, you might set yourself apart by speccing a Canadian show. But you don't have a lot of choice. Among the Canadian shows, you could probably count on Canadian network execs and producers having seen Slings and Arrows, Corner Gas, possibly not more than one episode of Little Mosque on the Prairie, possibly not more than one episode of Trailer Park Boys.

But you're probably safer speccing the usual: Heroes, Desperate Housewives, House, maybe Battlestar Galactica if you're a spec fiction fan.