Editing Global Television Network (section)

===Entertainment===
Global does not have what can be called a main schedule, apart from news. Even before the WIC purchase, the Global stations had widely varying program lineups, and the WIC purchase only exacerbated the differences. For example, CHAN held the British Columbia rights to many shows that aired on CTV until 2001, except for ''[[The Oprah Winfrey Show]]''. Factors influencing the stations' programming include time zone differences, local programming, and ratings for non-Global shows.

Global has built its business on profitable entertainment programming produced in the United States and has long been criticized for not investing enough in [[Canadian content]]. Canadian programming carried on the network, such as a revival of 1960s American science fiction series ''[[The Outer Limits (1995 TV series)|The Outer Limits]]'', or the Chicago-set drama ''[[Wild Card (TV series)|Zoe Busiek: Wild Card]]'', has often avoided Canadian themes, presumably to focus on sales to United States and international [[cable television|cable]] or [[television syndication|syndication]] markets – although ''[[Psi Factor]]'' did include Canadian themes, including a "killer wheat" episode and episodes set in Northern Quebec and Halifax. Series initially intended for the U.S. and international market are sometimes called "industrial" productions and largely disappeared with the collapse of the international action hour market.

From the late-1990s to the mid-2000s, Global aired somewhat more identifiably Canadian entertainment programming, including the long-running finance drama ''[[Traders (TV series)|Traders]]'', the British-Canadian animated comedy ''[[Bob and Margaret]]'', the police procedural drama ''[[Blue Murder (Canadian TV series)|Blue Murder]]'', the nightly [[improvisation|improvised]] drama ''[[Train 48]]'', the sitcom ''[[The Jane Show]]'' and the reality show ''[[My Fabulous Gay Wedding]]''. In 2003, Global signed comedian [[Mike Bullard (television)|Mike Bullard]], host of the nightly ''[[Open Mike with Mike Bullard]]'' on [[CTV Television Network|CTV]] and [[The Comedy Network]], to a multi-year contract for a new nightly [[The Mike Bullard Show|talk show]] on Global, but that series was cancelled after 60 episodes amid poor ratings.

Global purchased the rights to produce a Canadian version of the popular entertainment magazine ''[[Entertainment Tonight]]''; ''[[Entertainment Tonight Canada|ET Canada]]'' launched on September 12, 2005. It also secured Canadian production rights to the American [[reality series]] ''[[The Apprentice (American TV series)|The Apprentice]]'', but a Canadian version of the program never came to fruition. They also produce a Canadian version of the [[Reality television|reality series]] ''[[Big Brother Canada|Big Brother]]''.

Global, like all Canadian broadcast outlets, benefits from Canada's [[simultaneous substitution]] (or "simsub") regulations, which allow content owners to control programming rights for a particular show in Canada. When an American broadcast network is broadcasting the same show at the same time that Global is (such as the programs mentioned above), Canadian cable subscribers may only watch the Global Television broadcast, even when trying to view the American stations. This law gives them double exposure for their content and a larger share of advertising revenue, effectively blocking American border cities from access to the Canadian market. This was done to help give money to the networks to fund Canadian content development. Global is not the only Canadian broadcaster to use simsubs; nonetheless, some complaints, specific to Global, have arisen due to the following related practices:
* Some Global stations have superimposed the phrase "''on Global''" on a program's main titles, often in a font that poorly replicates that of the title itself. This sometimes meant that a single superimposed version was used with each episode, potentially interfering with running gags within the opening credits. For instance, the opening of ''[[American Dad!]]'' during the early seasons featured a news headline that changed with each episode, but for a time, the same headline might be shown on multiple episodes on Global, an issue that was later rectified. This practice was discontinued altogether with the start of the fall 2006 season.
* Split-screen credits are also used to allow for network promos (as of the 2009–10 season, the show's own stylized production credits are displayed rather than a network-generated uniform credit sequence). On some shows, including ''[[The Simpsons]]'' and ''[[Family Guy]]'', there are special closing credits that may use additional scenes or special music that is altered or lost when Global uses a split screen. While the use of split-screen credits is common among networks in Canada and the U.S., how Global treats one program and how the U.S. network treats the same episode may be different.
* In some cases, next-episode previews, such as those on ''[[The Apprentice (American TV series)|The Apprentice]]'', are not shown. This may be because these promos are made in-house by the network (in this case, [[NBC]]), and cannot be edited ahead of broadcast.
* Since the late 2000s, several American networks have begun to start certain shows shortly before or after :00 or :30 past the hour to avert audience loss. Global does not necessarily follow this practice, meaning the last few minutes of the preceding show may be lost to those watching the U.S. network. For instance, if NBC schedules ''The Apprentice'' to start at 9:02, but Global schedules its start for exactly 9:00, the last two minutes of NBC's 8:00 program may be blocked by the Global signal. This is not unique to Global and may vary by service provider, since cable and satellite providers, not the networks, are responsible for scheduling and initiating simsubs.
* If an American program on a U.S. network is delayed due to breaking news or a sporting event on the American network and is scheduled for broadcast at that time on Global, Global will also delay that episode until it starts on the American network to intentionally simsub. One example is an episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' that aired after [[Super Bowl XLII]] in 2008 (see below).
* Global was the Canadian broadcast-television rightsholder for the [[National Football League]] and, hence, the [[Super Bowl]], through the end of the 2006 season (these rights were bought by [[CTV Television Network|CTV]] starting with the 2007 season). As with any other U.S. network program, Global could and did simsub the American feed. However, the Super Bowl is particularly controversial, as the U.S. network [[Advertising in the Super Bowl|Super Bowl commercials]], likely the most anticipated set of commercials of any given year, could not be seen on either Global or the applicable U.S. station. Instead, while some international advertisers (such as [[Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch)|Budweiser]]) did buy time on Global for the U.S. ads, many Canadian companies simply ran ads introduced long before the game. Nonetheless, in recent years,{{When|date=December 2017}} nearly all American commercials have been available via various websites after the game, which may have placated some complainants.

Global cross-promotes heavily with other Corus Entertainment properties in the markets where both services operate in parallel.

On June 6, 2007, the Canadian actors' union [[ACTRA]] picketed Global's fall [[upfronts]] presentation to protest the lack of Canadian content on current television network schedules.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.570news.com/news/entertainment/article.jsp?content=e060643A |title=570News <!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=June 7, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928041346/http://www.570news.com/news/entertainment/article.jsp?content=e060643A |archive-date=September 28, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>