This is one of those topics that I constantly forget exists and then remember months later, though I will say it's pretty cool to see how the search has an extra layer of mystery now that it's been so long.
While I disagree with the idea that it's fake for only one person having remembered it or no new information having been found, it does seem likely that there's something else going on here even if it's not intentional.
It's possible OP was misremembering from the beginning but without confirmation from someone affiliated with Caillou, we can't completely confirm Charlie never existed. Though the fact that they never came back after the thread got so popular is another red flag and I never even caught the Cincinnati, Illinois statement which does sound off too.
I wish someone had caught that and questioned it back then but there's really nothing else to even do with the search- whether it's real or just a troll unless we get in touch with Caillou people because that's always been the goal anyway.
Was this for sure a local station, or was it a national channel like PBS Kids Sprout? Was this was a channel that could be accessed like any other channel in the lineup? Perhaps this was one of the station's digital subchannels?
Also, OP's mention of possible audio description narrations makes me think that this was part of a SAP feed; however, that wouldn't explain the title cards also being different.
My best speculation is perhaps this was a planned localized version going all the way back to the late '90s or early '00s before the show premiered in the US and they decided to change everything back at the last minute, leaving remnants on some of the masters' alternate audio tracks. (Kinda like how we were able to find Arthur's original season 6 voice through the DVS tracks) Again, just speculation.
Canadian here, I have some input for this subject.
First, the French version of Caillou is not a dub I'm pretty sure. It's the original version. If you watch the French version, the mouths are made to fit the French language. The English version itself is a dub. Caillou aired on Télétoon (French Canadian version of Teletoon) and aired on the English variant of the station a month after.
Second, I would not be surprised if this existed. But I want to remind everyone that there IS a Charlie in Caillou already.
His cat. Is it possible that you heard the name "Charlie" in the show, when referring to the cat, and got in confused and are misremembering? If not, I'm going to assume they just coincidentally chose the name Charlie because of how close it can be to Caillou in length and first letter. And if so they probably changed the name of the cat.
Third, if this does exist I'm going to assume it was made for the American market, as Caillou is a very odd name and would be hard for Americans to pronounce by looking at it (hell, as a kid with no understanding of French I didn't understand why his name had L's in it) but it also wouldn't surprise me if it was going to be changed to "Charlie" in English Canada. I'm not sure when the books were translated to English, so I'm not sure if it was BEFORE the show came out or after because of the success. Because this would most likely pin down if it was originally planned to air in Anglo Canada or The states.
I think if something like this existed it would have to be have made around when the show was being tested for American audiences, after all, Caillou's original voice actor passed away (may she rest in peace) so this would imply that this dub was made *before* her death, unless the second voice actor could pass her voice off as the original really well (I'd have to compare the voices to come to a conclusion of whether this is possible) It makes sense to me at least, that this was made for TEST AUDIENCES and never released until said station got the rights to air it, and they most likely got the "Charlie" dub too, and after all this years, someone decided to air it.
So basically, in my opinion, it was made for American test audiences, not used, then made lost media, then passed around as an option to channels to air, and a channel finally decided they wanted to air this version of Caillou with an alternate, more "American" name.
As much as I theorize this was probably very early seasons, it's still possible it was later ones. But the show was done my a few different companies over the years, so it would be hard to track it down.
Cookie Jar has full rights to Caillou now, and if they do, they would have the "Charlie" dub. Not sure how difficult it is to get in contact with them, but I think I will try, because this has got me curious.
His cat was always named Gilbert. And that's not a mandela effect because I rewatched the show recently (and having Autism, people have said my memory is a lot more accurate and deep than other people). The other thing to keep in mind is that it wasn't the original voice actress who passed away. Bryn McAuley was the original, and she is still alive at like age 33 and is still working as a voice actress. The Caillou that passed away was Jaclyn Lynetsky, who voiced him in the early 2000s. She unfortunately passed away at age 17 in a car accident in 2003. Annie Bovaird took over in 2003, because Jaclyn Lynetsky decided not to return before she passed, and Annie kept playing the role until the show ended in 2010. I was watching LSuperSonicQ's (a fellow forums member) video about Kids TV Lost Media, and mentioned that the OP remembers the "Charlie" theme song being sung by the same voice as "Caillou". The theme song was recorded by Bryn McAuley in 1997 and has remained the same even as the voice actresses changed. She has an Instagram, so she could probably be contacted through a DM. Let us know before you do though so her inbox is not flooded with messages.
His cat was always named Gilbert. And that's not a mandela effect because I rewatched the show recently (and having Autism, people have said my memory is a lot more accurate and deep than other people). The other thing to keep in mind is that it wasn't the original voice actress who passed away. Bryn McAuley was the original, and she is still alive at like age 33 and is still working as a voice actress. The Caillou that passed away was Jaclyn Lynetsky, who voiced him in the early 2000s. She unfortunately passed away at age 17 in a car accident in 2003. Annie Bovaird took over in 2003, because Jaclyn Lynetsky decided not to return before she passed, and Annie kept playing the role until the show ended in 2010. I was watching LSuperSonicQ's (a fellow forums member) video about Kids TV Lost Media, and mentioned that the OP remembers the "Charlie" theme song being sung by the same voice as "Caillou". The theme song was recorded by Bryn McAuley in 1997 and has remained the same even as the voice actresses changed. She has an Instagram, so she could probably be contacted through a DM. Let us know before you do though so her inbox is not flooded with messages.
I couldn't find her Instagram but I did find her Twitter and tweeted about this to her. Her last activity was on the 30th last month (she liked a post), so maybe she'll respond.
His cat was always named Gilbert. And that's not a mandela effect because I rewatched the show recently (and having Autism, people have said my memory is a lot more accurate and deep than other people). The other thing to keep in mind is that it wasn't the original voice actress who passed away. Bryn McAuley was the original, and she is still alive at like age 33 and is still working as a voice actress. The Caillou that passed away was Jaclyn Lynetsky, who voiced him in the early 2000s. She unfortunately passed away at age 17 in a car accident in 2003. Annie Bovaird took over in 2003, because Jaclyn Lynetsky decided not to return before she passed, and Annie kept playing the role until the show ended in 2010. I was watching LSuperSonicQ's (a fellow forums member) video about Kids TV Lost Media, and mentioned that the OP remembers the "Charlie" theme song being sung by the same voice as "Caillou". The theme song was recorded by Bryn McAuley in 1997 and has remained the same even as the voice actresses changed. She has an Instagram, so she could probably be contacted through a DM. Let us know before you do though so her inbox is not flooded with messages.
I couldn't find her Instagram but I did find her Twitter and tweeted about this to her. Her last activity was on the 30th last month (she liked a post), so maybe she'll respond.
I was watching LSuperSonicQ's (a fellow forums member) video about Kids TV Lost Media, and mentioned that the OP remembers the "Charlie" theme song being sung by the same voice as "Caillou". The theme song was recorded by Bryn McAuley in 1997 and has remained the same even as the voice actresses changed.
To be honest, since McAuley had left long before the Charlie dub had aired (and possibly even created), I kind of doubt that it was her that would have sung the version of the theme song for this dub.