It was considered the first successful Canadian attempt at the genre, following the previous failures of 90 Minutes Live and Friday Night!
[1] Open Mike was hosted by comedian Mike Bullard and initially taped at a studio at the back of Wayne Gretzky's restaurant in Toronto, Ontario before CTV moved the show to Toronto's historic Masonic Temple.
It aired live from midnight to 1 am on CTV and would be repeated the next day in prime time on the Comedy Network.
According to longtime Toronto Sun television critic Bill Brioux, Bullard had been told at a lunch with the head of CTV that his show would be cancelled at the end of its sixth season.
[3][4] He said one of the key reasons for moving to Global was a commitment to produce more episodes of the show instead of airing re-runs during the summer, as had been CTV's practice.