Trio was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 cable

Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

 and satellite

Satellite television

Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...

 television network

Television network

A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

.

Trio went on the air in 1997, then originally owned and operated jointly by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

 and Power Broadcasting Inc. (a subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada

Power Corporation of Canada

Power Corporation of Canada is a Canadian company with assets in North America and Europe in a number of industries. These industries include media, pulp and paper, and financial services....

) as a venue for airing the CBC's arts, culture and entertainment programming in the U.S. It was sold to USA Networks

NBC Universal Cable

NBCUniversal Cable is the division of NBCUniversal that oversees the following cable television networks:*Bravo*Chiller*Cloo*mun2*Oxygen*Syfy*Telemundo Puerto Rico*Universal HD*USA Network*The Weather Channel*Weatherscan-Information:...

 in 2000, and was subsequently transferred to Vivendi Universal

Vivendi

Vivendi SA is a French international media conglomerate with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications, the Internet, and video games. It is headquartered in Paris.- History :...

 and later NBC Universal

NBC Universal

NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...

.

With the slogan, "pop, culture, TV", Trio programming under Vivendi/NBC Universal ownership focused on television as a cultural tool and art form.

In January 2005, Trio was dropped from DirecTV

DirecTV

DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

, eliminating about two-thirds of the homes that could receive the network. On November 21, 2005, NBC Universal announced that the Trio brand would be transferred to a broadband

Broadband

The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

 Internet TV initiative under the Bravotv.com banner on January 1, 2006. Cable and satellite providers still carrying Trio were offered a new NBC Universal cable network instead, Sleuth.

Original

• The N-Word
  The N-Word
  The N-Word is a 2004 documentary directed and written by Todd Larkins Williams. The movie, as the title may suggest, looks into the history and usage of the word nigger and its variations.Interviews With:*Sandra Bernhard*Todd Boyd*Elaine Brown...
  
  , Peabody Award
  Peabody Award
  The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
  
  -winning documentary starring Whoopi Goldberg
  Whoopi Goldberg
  Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
  
  , Samuel L. Jackson
  Samuel L. Jackson
  Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
  
   and many other African American celebrities discussing the origin and power of the word nigger
  Nigger
  Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
  
  .
• The Award Show Awards Show, examination of America's obsession with awards
• The Christmas Special Christmas Special
  The Christmas Special Christmas Special
  The Christmas Special Christmas Special is a television program examining the history of Christmas specials, and featuring interviews with many people associated with them. Produced by the company World of Wonder, it originated on Trio, but it has also turned up on the Ovation Channel...
  
  
• Film Fanatic, cinema, hosted by Amy Sedaris
  Amy Sedaris
  Amy Louise Sedaris is an American actress, author, and comedian. She is known for playing the character Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central television series Strangers with Candy. Sedaris regularly collaborates with her older brother, humorist and author David Sedaris...
  
  
• TV's Most Censored Moments, a documentary about censorship in television.
• The Blockbuster Imperative, a documentary about Hollywood's obsession with blockbuster movies.

Reruns

• A Very British Coup
  A Very British Coup
  A Very British Coup is a 1982 novel by British politician Chris Mullin. In 1988, the novel was adapted for television, directed by Mick Jackson, with a screenplay by Alan Plater and starring Ray McAnally...
  
  
• Adrenaline Junkies (a.k.a. Medivac)
  Medivac (TV series)
  Medivac was an Australian television drama series that ran on Network Ten from 1996 to 1998. There were 48 episodes produced. Medivac is an abbreviation of the term medical evacuation...
  
  
• Airline
• All Saints
  All Saints (TV series)
  All Saints is an Australian medical drama which first screened on the Seven Network. The series debuted on 24 February 1998 and concluded its run on 27 October 2009...
  
  
• Battle of the Network Stars
  Battle of the Network Stars
  Battle of the Network Stars is the name of 19 US television specials featuring competitions among teams of popular television performers representing the three major broadcast networks at that time: ABC, CBS, and NBC.- History :...
  
  
• Black Harbour
  Black Harbour
  Black Harbour is a Canadian television series, which ran on CBC Television from 1996 to 1999.The show starred Rebecca Jenkins as Katherine Hubbard, a successful restaurant owner who returned to live in her Nova Scotia hometown to be with her mother who had suffered a heart attack. Her husband...
  
  
• Blue Heelers
  Blue Heelers
  Blue Heelers is an Australian police drama series which depicted the lives of police officers stationed at the fictional Mount Thomas police station in a small town in Victoria.- Overview :...
  
  
• Brides of Christ
• Bugs
  Bugs (TV series)
  Bugs was a British television drama series which ran for four series from April 1995 to August 1999. The programme, a mixture of action/adventure and science-fiction, involved a team of specialist independent crime-fighting technology experts, who faced a variety of threats based around computers...
  
  
• Coming Home (TV miniseries), based on the Rosamunde Pilcher
  Rosamunde Pilcher
  Rosamunde Pilcher OBE is a British author of romance novels and mainstream women's fiction. Early in her career she was also published under the pen name Jane Fraser. Pilcher retired from writing in 2000.-Early years:...
  
   novel
• Coronation Street
  Coronation Street
  Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
  
  
• Counterstrike
• Cracker
  Cracker (UK TV series)
  Cracker is a British crime drama series produced by Granada Television for ITV and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The series is centered on a criminal psychologist , Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, played by Robbie Coltrane. Set in Manchester, it consists of three series which were...
  
  
• The Dame Edna Experience
• The Damnation of Harvey McHugh
  The Damnation of Harvey McHugh
  The Damnation of Harvey McHugh is a television miniseries made by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The series consists of 12 episodes and was first broadcast on the ABC in 1994.-Cast and crew:...
  
  
• Duggan (NZ TV series)
• EGG, the Arts Show
  EGG, the Arts Show
  EGG, the arts show was an American nonfiction television program that aired on PBS from 2000 to 2003. EGG documented both the famous and the unusual aspects and projects of classical and modern arts; its narrator was Elaine Stritch....
  
  
• E.N.G.
  E.N.G.
  E.N.G. is a Canadian television drama, following the staff of a fictional Toronto television news station . The show aired on CTV from 1988 to 1994...
  
  
• Flightpath
• Hot Type
  Hot Type
  Hot Type is a Canadian television series, which airs weekly on CBC Newsworld. Hosted by Evan Solomon, the program profiles books and literature.The series also formerly aired in the United States on Trio and Newsworld International....
  
  
• Judy Garland Show Christmas Special
  The Judy Garland Show
  The Judy Garland Show is an American musical variety television series that aired on CBS on Sunday nights during the 1963-1964 television season. Despite a sometimes stormy relationship with Judy Garland, CBS had found success with several television specials featuring the star...
  
  
• Kath & Kim
  Kath & Kim
  Kath & Kim is a Logie Award-winning character-driven Australian television situation comedy series. The series was created by, and is written by Jane Turner and Gina Riley who play the title characters: a suburban mother and daughter with a dysfunctional relationship...
  
  
• Late Night with David Letterman
  Late Night with David Letterman
  Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
  
  
• London's Burning
  London's Burning
  London's Burning was a British television drama programme produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network that focused on the lives of members of the London Fire Brigade, principally those of the Blue Watch at a fictional fire station called Blackwall.It was broadcast between 1986 and...
  
  
• McCallum
  McCallum
  McCallum is a British television series that was produced by STV Productions .Dr Iain McCallum was the original lead character, played by John Hannah. McCallum was a forensic pathologist who traveled by Triumph Motorcycle, and solved murders...
  
  
• MediaTelevision
  MediaTelevision
  Media Television was a Canadian television newsmagazine series, which aired weekly on Citytv from 1991 to 2004. It was also syndicated internationally, airing in over 100 countries around the world at some point during its run....
  
  
• Mercury (Australian TV series), featuring Geoffrey Rush
  Geoffrey Rush
  Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
  
   in an early lead role
• Nancherrow
  Nancherrow
  Nancherrow was a TV movie sequel to Rosamunde Pilcher's Coming Home. It aired on ITV television in April 1999.-Plot synopsis:After the Colonel dies it is his irrepressible daughter, Loveday, who inherits the house and all of its problems. Bewitched by the magic of Nancherrow, Loveday fights to...
  
  , the sequel to Coming Home (TV miniseries)
• The Nature of Things
  The Nature of Things
  The Nature of Things is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on the CBC on November 6, 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that humans have on it. The program was one of the first to explore environmental issues, such as clear-cut logging...
  
  
• New York Undercover
  New York Undercover
  New York Undercover is an American police drama that aired on the FOX television network from 1994 to 1998. The series starred Malik Yoba as Detective J.C. Williams and Michael DeLorenzo as Detective Eddie Torres, two undercover detectives in New York City's 4th Precinct who were assigned to...
  
  
• North of 60
  North of 60
  North of 60 is a mid-1990s Canadian television series depicting life in the sub-Arctic northern boreal forest . It first aired on CBC Television in 1992 and was syndicated around the world. It is set in the fictional community of Lynx River, a primarily Native-run town depicted as being in the...
  
  
• Once Upon a Hamster
• Queen for a Day
  Queen for a Day
  Queen for a Day is an American radio and television game show that helped to usher in American listeners' and viewers' fascination with big-prize giveaway shows. Queen for a Day originated on the Mutual Radio Network on April 30, 1945 in New York City before moving to Los Angeles a few months...
  
  
• The Raccoons
  The Raccoons
  The Raccoons is a Canadian animated television series which was originally broadcast from 1985 to 1991 with four preceding television specials beginning in 1980. The series was created by Kevin Gillis, and produced at Atkinson Film-Arts first-hand from 1984 to 1985, then at Hinton Animation Studios...
  
  
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
  Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
  Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In is an American sketch comedy television program which ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to May 14, 1973. It was hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin and was broadcast over NBC...
  
  
• SCTV
  Second City Television
  Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
  
  
• Secret Rulers of the World
  Secret Rulers of the World
  The Secret Rulers of the World is a five-part documentary film, produced by World of Wonder Productions and written, directed by and featuring British journalist Jon Ronson. The series of parts was first shown on the British television network Channel 4 on April 2001...
  
  
• Sessions at West 54th
  Sessions at West 54th
  Sessions at West 54th was an American television program that featured music performances, and was in some ways a pop music variation on the theme set by the long-lived Austin City Limits, though the featured musicians represented a number of musical genres. It was called Sessions at West 54th...
  
  
• Spaced
  Spaced
  Spaced is a British television sitcom written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and directed by Edgar Wright. It is noted for its rapid-fire editing, frequent pop culture references and jokes, eclectic music, and occasional displays of surrealism and non-sequitur humour...
  
  
• Street Legal
  Street Legal (TV series)
  Street Legal is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1987 to 1994.-Synopsis:A spinoff from the 1985 television movie Shellgame, Street Legal focused on the professional and private lives of the partners in a small Toronto, Ontario law firm, Barr, Robinovitch and Tchobanian...
  
  
• Taggart
  Taggart
  Taggart is a Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has written many of the episodes, and made by STV Productions for the ITV network...
  
  
• The Littlest Hobo
  The Littlest Hobo
  The Littlest Hobo is a Canadian television series based upon a 1958 American film of the same name directed by Charles R. Rondeau. The series first aired from 1963 to 1965 in syndication, and was revived for a popular second run on CTV from October 11, 1979 to March 7, 1985.All three productions...
  
  
• Traders
  Traders (TV series)
  Traders is a Canadian television drama series, which was broadcast on Global Television Network from 1995 to 2000.-Overview:Although Global had locked up most of NBC's "Must See Thursday" situation comedies for their Thursday night broadcasts, they lost the rights to broadcast the medical drama ER...
  
  
• Undercurrents
  Undercurrents (TV series)
  Undercurrents was a Canadian television newsmagazine series in the 1990s, hosted by Wendy Mesley.The series, which first aired in 1994, primarily concentrated on investigative and documentary reports about media and technology, such as examining media coverage of controversial issues...
  
  
• Young People's Concerts
  Young People's Concerts
  The Young People's Concerts at the New York Philharmonic are the longest-running series of family concerts of classical music in the world.-Genesis:...
  
  

Brilliant But Cancelled

This was the umbrella title under which Trio aired repeats of series that had very short lives on mainstream broadcast television, yet were still considered to be programming that "broke the mold" of what was normally expected from the "Big Three

Big Three Television Networks

The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...

" networks. Series that appeared under the Brilliant But Cancelled umbrella included:

• Action
  Action (TV series)
  Action is a comedy series about a Hollywood producer named Peter Dragon, who is trying to recover from his last box-office failure. It aired on FOX during the 1999-2000 season. The series was critically praised for its irreverent, and sometimes hostile look at Hollywood culture. Thirteen episodes...
  
  
• Bakersfield P.D.
  Bakersfield P.D.
  Bakersfield P.D. was a short-lived American television comedy series that aired on the Fox network in 1993-94.The show was based in the police department of the city of Bakersfield, California. It was shot with naturalistic lighting and without a laugh track...
  
  
• Brideshead Revisited
• East Side/West Side
  East Side/West Side
  East Side/West Side is an American drama series starring George C. Scott, Elizabeth Wilson, Cicely Tyson, and later on, Linden Chiles. The series aired for only one season and was shown Monday nights on CBS.-Synopsis:...
  
  
• The Ernie Kovacs Show
  The Ernie Kovacs Show
  The Ernie Kovacs Show is an American comedy show hosted by comedian Ernie Kovacs first shown in Philadelphia during the early 50s, then nationally.In 1953, Kovacs had an evening show by the same name on CBS...
  
  
• EZ Streets
  EZ Streets
  EZ Streets is an American television drama series created by Paul Haggis. It premiered on CBS on October 27, 1996 with a two hour pilot telefilm...
  
  
• Fargo
  Fargo (film)
  Fargo is a 1996 American dark comedy-crime film produced, directed and written by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Frances McDormand as a pregnant police chief who investigates a series of homicides, William H...
  
   (pilot)
• God, the Devil and Bob
  God, the Devil and Bob
  God, the Devil and Bob is an animated sitcom which premiered on NBC on March 9, 2000 and ended on March 28, 2000, leaving nine episodes unaired. It was created by Matthew Carlson. It is currently broadcast on the Philippine channel Maxxx. The entire series was released on Region 1 DVD in the...
  
  
• Johnny Staccato
  Johnny Staccato
  Johnny Staccato is an American private detective series which ran for 27 episodes on NBC from September 10, 1959 through March 24, 1960.-Synopsis:...
  
  
• Kolchak: The Night Stalker
  Kolchak: The Night Stalker
  Kolchak: The Night Stalker is an American television series that aired on ABC during the 1974-1975 season. It featured a fictional Chicago newspaper reporter — Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin — who investigates mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly ones law...
  
  
• L.A. Confidential
  L.A. Confidential
  L.A. Confidential is a 1997 American film based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel of the same title, the third book in his L.A. Quartet. Both the book and the film tell the story of a group of LAPD officers in the 1950s, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity...
  
   (pilot)
• Lookwell
  Lookwell
  Lookwell was a television pilot written and produced by Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel. It starred Adam West as a washed-up TV action hero—who at the peak of his career was ceremonially deputized by local law enforcement—who falsely believes he can solve crimes in real life. His student, Jason,...
  
   (pilot)
• Now and Again
  Now and Again
  Now and Again is an American television series that aired in the US from September 24, 1999 until May 5, 2000 on CBS. The story revolves around the United States government engineering the perfect human body for use in espionage, but not being able to yet perfect the brain...
  
  
• Profit
  Profit (TV series)
  Profit is an American television series that originally aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1996. The series was created by David Greenwalt and John McNamara, and starred Adrian Pasdar as the titular character, Jim Profit. In February 2008, episodes began airing on Chiller in the USA...
  
  
• The PJs
  The PJs
  The PJs is an American stop-motion animated television series created by Eddie Murphy, Larry Wilmore, and Steve Tompkins. It portrayed life in an urban public housing project, modeled after the Brewster-Douglass housing projects in Detroit that once housed Diana Ross & Lilly Tomlin...
  
  
• United States
  United States (TV series)
  United States was a short-lived half-hour comedy-drama that NBC added to its Tuesday primetime schedule in March 1980.Larry Gelbart, the show's executive producer and chief writer, said the name United States was not a reference to the country but rather to "the state of being united in a...
  
  

Brilliant But Cancelled was later used by Universal

Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Universal Studios Home Entertainment is the home video division of Universal Pictures...

 as a title for a series of DVDs that feature samples of short-lived series. Two of these have been released so far—one of these a sampler of short-lived crime drama series; another was selected episodes of EZ Streets.

Flops

Special airing of shows that flopped.

• Cop Rock
  Cop Rock
  Cop Rock is an American musical police drama series that aired on ABC in 1990. The show, a police drama presented as a musical, was co-created by Steven Bochco, who also served as executive producer...
  
  
• My Mother the Car
  My Mother the Car
  My Mother the Car is an American fantasy sitcom which aired for a single season on NBC between September 14, 1965 and September 6, 1966. A total of thirty episodes were produced by United Artists Television....
  
  
• Pink Lady and Jeff

(The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer

The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer

The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer is an American sitcom that aired on UPN in 1998. Before it was even debuted, the series set off a storm of controversy because of a perceived light-hearted take on the issue of American slavery.-Story:...

 was supposed to air, but was pulled
due to the controversial nature of the program, which played for laughs the relationship
between a black nobleman and President Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

).

External links

• Variety Review of TV's Most Censored Moments
• Variety Review of The Award Show Awards Show