Season one: CIS Countdown, 2011 It first aired as
CIS Countdown in September 2011 with
Jim Mullin as host and Chad Klassen and Andrew Wadden as commentators, providing an overview of Canadian university football games on
SHAW TV throughout Western Canada. The show was developed in conjunction with
MRX and Associates as a means to promote the
2011 Vanier Cup at
BC Place Stadium. In the first season, there were 10 episodes produced.
Season two: Krown Canadian University Countdown, 2012 There were changes for the 2012 season, after Krown Produce became the title sponsor of the show. This included a name change to "Canadian University Countdown".
Ryan Sullivan joined Wadden on the highlight desk as an anchor team, eliminating most of the duties of the host position. Mullin shifted to the panel with
Hec Crighton Award winning quarterback
Billy Greene joining the show as a full-time panelist and the two would remain together through the 2013–14 season. The number of stations carrying the show grew as well, with
COGECO TV carrying the show in
Kingston and
Windsor-Essex.
Cable 14 broadcast the show throughout the
Hamilton region. The show was integrated into
Canada West broadcast coverage on SHAW TV. Additional panelists from across the country were included via Skype, including former
Sherbrooke quarterback J.P. Shoiry,
Rogers Sportsnet contributor Donnovan Bennett, Justin Dunk, Charles-Antoine Sinotte and freelance writer Andrew Bucholtz rotating in the guest panelist position. There were 16 episodes produced, running from September through December.
Season three to six: Krown Countdown U on Shaw TV and affiliates, 2013–2017 The show changed its name again for the 2013 season, to the current Krown Countdown U. The show expanded to 20 episodes, with monthly off-season episodes running from January through May.
Rogers TV stations throughout Ontario picked up the show in
Ottawa,
Guelph,
London and
Kitchener-Waterloo.
Eastlink cable picked up the show for broadcast throughout the four
Atlantic provinces. The format remained mainly intact from the previous two seasons. The show went on location to start the Canada West Football season on Shaw TV, with the kickoff game in Saskatoon in 2013 and 2014. The show became the pregame show for Krown
Canada West Football on Shaw. The on-screen antics of Wadden and Sullivan developed a minor cult following in the football world. In a feature on the
Laval Rouge et Or football team
Newsweek wrote, "There is a weekly highlight show,
Krown Countdown U, that resembles what would happen if
ESPN’s College GameDay mated with
SCTV’s
Bob and Doug McKenzie. During a recent highlights package, co-host Ryan Sullivan quipped of a player who ran back a punt for a touchdown, “He is gone, like a bullet that was shot out of a gun that shoots bullets.” In 2014, former
UBC Thunderbirds and
Queen's Gaels offensive lineman Gord Randall replaced Greene, who left Canada to play football in Europe. Also in 2014, former UBC Thunderbirds head coach Shawn Olson hosted a segment named "X's and Olson" which uses a telestrator to break down plays in 12-man football. Through 2015 and 2016 the format remained the same, with Justin Dunk assuming most of the guest panel spots from Toronto. There were 15 in-season episodes from late August through November, and monthly episodes from January through CFL/
NFL draft season in May. The show's producer won the Paul Carson Award in 2016 for promotion and development of varsity sports in Canada.
KCU and the Northern 8 L. David Dube is the principal owner of Krown Produce and has underwritten the cost of production through sponsorship of the program. Dube and Mullin as project partners started planning and discussion around the
Northern 8, a proposed schedule of competition which would place the best
CIS/USports football teams from across the country in a nationally televised game of the week. Much of the discussion surrounding the proposal was content for the panel on KCU. During the height of the first attempt to broaden competition in the winter of 2014–15, KCU produced a specific show about what the Northern 8 was, with Dube explaining the concept.
Season seven: The move from Shaw and Canada West to CHCH and national coverage, 2017–2018 There were many changes for the 2017 season with the shutdown of Shaw TV operations in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. Canada West moved to an online pay-per-view model with games and paired with SaskTel Max for games of the week. Mullin, who had been the play-by-play voice of Canada West football for 10 years was not included in the new conference broadcast package. This resulted in the show finding a new home on CHCH, which significantly increased the household reach across Canada to 6.8 million and aligned the product with the OUA. An online edition was posted on 3DownNation after the show was distributed to CHCH. The anchoring team of Wadden and Sullivan was replaced by Mullin as the anchor, with Randall and
TSN 1050 and
Toronto Argonauts play-by-play voice
Mike Hogan completing the roster of the full panel. Olson continued X's and Olson. With Mullin off the play-by-play beat, more focus was placed on
NCAA Football and Canadian players on
Division I teams. This included Mullin anchoring from
Knoxville, Tennessee and
Grand Forks, North Dakota along with on-site interviews and visits in
Atlanta, Georgia,
Athens, Ohio,
Seattle, Washington and
Buffalo, New York. There was also an episode produced out of the CHCH studios in Hamilton after the
Vanier Cup.
Season eight: Partnership with CBC Sports and IFAF In July 2018, CBC Sports,
International Federation of American Football, and KCU announced a partnership to broadcast major IFAF events within Canada on CBC's online service. As part of the agreement, CBC also became the online home for KCU TV.
Season nine: TSN Gridiron Nation presented by Krown Produce, 2019 - current The show rebranded in 2019 with the move to TSN as "Gridiron Nation presented by Krown Produce" a.k.a. "Krown Gridiron Nation on TSN". The majority of content focused on Canadian participation in the NCAA, with some additional coverage provided to U SPORTS football. The NCAA content is in keeping with TSN's content agreement with the NCAA and ESPN.
Distribution and broadcast partners since 2011 == The #Power7 ==