Repository: yt-dlp
Issue: [gem.cbc.ca] Failed to parse JSON: JSONDecodeError: Expecting value in '': line 1 column 1 (char 0)
Labels: account-needed,geo-blocked,site-bug,triage,can-share-account

### DO NOT REMOVE OR SKIP THE ISSUE TEMPLATE

- [X] I understand that I will be **blocked** if I *intentionally* remove or skip any mandatory\* field

### Checklist

- [X] I'm reporting that yt-dlp is broken on a **supported** site
- [X] I've verified that I have **updated yt-dlp to nightly or master** ([update instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#update-channels))
- [X] I've checked that all provided URLs are playable in a browser with the same IP and same login details
- [X] I've checked that all URLs and arguments with special characters are [properly quoted or escaped](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ#video-url-contains-an-ampersand--and-im-getting-some-strange-output-1-2839-or-v-is-not-recognized-as-an-internal-or-external-command)
- [X] I've searched [known issues](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/3766) and the [bugtracker](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues?q=) for similar issues **including closed ones**. DO NOT post duplicates
- [X] I've read the [guidelines for opening an issue](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
- [X] I've read about [sharing account credentials](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#are-you-willing-to-share-account-details-if-needed) and I'm willing to share it if required

### Region

Canada

### Provide a description that is worded well enough to be understood

It normally works, but has stopped working. This includes videos downloaded as recently as a few days ago (but they now no longer work).

It's failing to parse the returned JSON:

json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value in '': line 1 column 1 (char 0)




### Provide verbose output that clearly demonstrates the problem

- [X] Run **your** yt-dlp command with **-vU** flag added (`yt-dlp -vU <your command line>`)
- [X] If using API, add `'verbose': True` to `YoutubeDL` params instead
- [X] Copy the WHOLE output (starting with `[debug] Command-line config`) and insert it below

### Complete Verbose Output

```shell
[debug] Command-line config: ['-vU', '--username', 'PRIVATE', '--password', 'PRIVATE', 'https://gem.cbc.ca/coronation-street/s01e11428']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out utf-8, error utf-8, screen utf-8
[debug] yt-dlp version stable@2024.12.13 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp [542166962] (win_exe)
[debug] Python 3.10.11 (CPython AMD64 64bit) - Windows-10-10.0.22631-SP0 (OpenSSL 1.1.1t  7 Feb 2023)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 7.0-essentials_build-www.gyan.dev (setts)
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.21.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2024.08.30, curl_cffi-0.5.10, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.3, sqlite3-3.40.1, urllib3-2.2.3, websockets-14.1
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets, curl_cffi
[debug] Loaded 1837 extractors
[debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest
Latest version: stable@2024.12.13 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp
yt-dlp is up to date (stable@2024.12.13 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp)
[debug] Using fake IP 99.246.11.195 (CA) as X-Forwarded-For
[debug] Loading cbcgem.claims_token from cache
[gem.cbc.ca] Extracting URL: https://gem.cbc.ca/coronation-street/s01e11428
[gem.cbc.ca] coronation-street/s01e11428: Downloading JSON metadata
ERROR: [gem.cbc.ca] coronation-street/s01e11428: coronation-street/s01e11428: Failed to parse JSON (caused by JSONDecodeError("Expecting value in '': line 1 column 1 (char 0)")); please report this issue on  https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues?q= , filling out the appropriate issue template. Confirm you are on the latest version using  yt-dlp -U
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 742, in extract
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\cbc.py", line 638, in _real_extract
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1152, in download_content
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1119, in download_handle
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1107, in parse
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1094, in _parse_json
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1077, in __print_error

  File "yt_dlp\utils\_utils.py", line 565, in decode
  File "json\decoder.py", line 337, in decode
  File "json\decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1091, in _parse_json
  File "json\__init__.py", line 359, in loads
  File "yt_dlp\utils\_utils.py", line 573, in decode
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value in '': line 1 column 1 (char 0)
```