Marilyn Denis reaches 1,000 episodes, again
Averaging 241,000 viewers per show, it’s a leader in Canadian daytime TV
When you’ve been in front of the cameras as long as Marilyn Denis has, it’s easy to lose count of the episodes you have made.
She didn’t know the 1,000th episode of The Marilyn Denis Show was approaching until her producers told her. It airs Tuesday at10 a.m. on CTV.
Denis was surprised, despite having already passed that milestone as the face of Citytv’s Cityline morning show for 19 seasons.
“Never did I think back then that I would celebrate another show with another 1,000 episodes,” says the Edmonton-born, Pittsburgh-raised Denis. “I got to tell you,1,000 means a lot to me. It means we’re doing the right thing.”
The Marilyn Denis Show doesn’t draw nearly as many viewers as the star-studded American talk shows, but it’s a leader in Canadian daytime TV, averaging 241,000 viewers per episode.
But even if Denis can’t give lavish cars to her studio audience, Oprahstyle, she’s built a connection with generations of women.
“I think my mom and I talk daily about how bad we want to meet @MarilynDenisCTV . . . getting a bit excessive now,” raved one young woman on Twitter.
Although her show is aimed at women, Denis bristles when asked if she is a feminist. “Oh my gosh, that’s silly,” she says. “That’s an investigative question. I’m just celebrating 1,000 episodes. That’s not an appropriate question for me.”
For the 1,000th show, Marilyn shook things up a little. Usually broadcast live, the show was shot live-to-tape to allow Denis to get to know her surprise guests, guessing their identities as they hid behind a screen. The big reveal was saved for the end when singer, actor and American Idol judge Harry Connick Jr. emerged.
Denis also got a surprise visit from 50 people who have received personal or home makeovers, learned from featured experts’ advice or participated in weight-loss challenges.
Denis learned a lot about celebrity interviews, a hallmark of her show, from late Citytv host Brian Linehan, who told her, “Just know your stuff.”
It’s just as important to be yourself, she says, something she learned watching her first concert, Anne Murray in Calgary in the early ’70s.
Murray took the stage wearing a jumpsuit torn at the hem and no shoes, Denis recalls. She told the crowd she had accidentally stepped on her pant leg and ripped it.
“You know what I learned at that moment?” Denis says. “She’s a person.”
A chance meeting with American broadcaster Cathy Milton just before graduating high school turned Denis toward a career in radio and TV.
As a teenager, Denis was a “transistor sister,” always wearing an earpiece to listen to top 40 radio. She studied broadcasting at the University of Idaho, before working as a weather and sports reporter on radio and TV in Calgary. She moved to Toronto in 1986 and got her start on CHUM FM’s morning radio show hosted by Roger Ashby. She still wakes up at 3:30 each weekday morning for Roger & Marilyn.
After more than two decades on TV, Denis isn’t about to call it quits now, at 57. “How do I look?” she says. “Well, I’m being propped up right now. There’s a man behind my chair.
“I’ll keep going as long as I can. Then you can come to my next show, when they wheel me off. Another 1,000, what do you say?” The Marilyn Denis Show airs live weekdays at 10 a.m. on CTV.