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Arctic Air, Awards, Battle of the Blades, Being Erica, Bomb Girls, Continuum, Degrassi, Dragons' Den, Featured, Flashpoint, Haven, InSecurity, Less Than Kind, Mr. D, Rick Mercer Report, Saving Hope, This Hour Has 22 Minutes

Canadian Screen Award nominations announced

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From CBC:

See all television Canadian Screen Award nominations here. Selected nominations:

Best animated TV show:

Almost Naked Animals
Jack
Producing Parker
Rated A for Awesome

Best comedy:

Good God
Kenny Hotz: Triumph of the Will
Less Than Kind
Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays
Mr. D

Best dramatic miniseries:

Cyberbully
Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story 2

Best drama:

Arctic Air
Bomb Girls
Continuum
Flashpoint
King

Best international drama:

The Borgias
The Crimson Petal and the White
Titanic

Best music, variety or sketch comedy:

2012 MuchMusic Video Awards
Battle of the Blades
Canada Sings
The JUNO Awards 2012
Rick Mercer Report

Best Children’s or Youth Fiction Program or Series:

Degrassi
The Haunting Hour
Mudpit
That’s So Weird
What’s Up Warthogs

Best Reality/Competition Program or Series:

Canada’s Greatest Know-It-All
Canada’s Handyman Challenge
Dragons’ Den
The Real Housewives of Vancouver
Redemption Inc.

Best Writing in a Comedy Program or Series:

Less Than Kind, “Reparations and Renewal” – Jenn Engels
Less Than Kind, “March Fourth” – Mark McKinney, Garry Campbell
Less Than Kind, “Play it Again, Sam” – Mark McKinney
Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, “Two Girls, One Tongue” – Charles Picco
Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays, “Bridges” – Matt Watts

Best Writing in a Dramatic Series:

Lost Girl, “Into the Dark” – Emily Andras
Continuum, “A Stitch in Time” – Simon Barry
Flashpoint, “Day Game” – Aubrey Nealon
Rookie Blue, “A Good Shoot” – Greg Nelson
Being Erica, “Dr. Erica” – Jana Sinyor, Aaron Martin

Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Comedic Role:

Almost Heroes – “Terry and Peter vs. Season Finale” – Ryan Belleville
Mr. D, “The Basketball Diaries” – Gerry Dee
This Hour Has 22 Minutes, “X mas Special” – Shaun Majumder
Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays, “Sleeping with People” – Bob Martin
I, Martin Short, Goes Home – Martin Short

Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Comedic Role:

Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays, “Heights” – Jennifer Irwin
This Hour Has 22 Minutes, “X mas Special” – Cathy Jones
InSecurity, “Agent Ex” – Natalie Lisinska
Less Than Kind, “The Fwomp” – Wendel Meldrum
Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays, “Endings” – Tommie-Amber Pirie

Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role:

Flashpoint, “Day Game” – Enrico Colantoni
The L.A. Complex 2, “Don’t Say Goodbye” – Andra Fuller
Combat Hospital, “Triage” – Elias Koteas
Combat Hospital, “Reason to Believe” – Luke Mably
Blackstone, “Hitchin” – Steven Cree Molison

Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role:

Saving Hope, “Heartsick” – Erica Durance
Being Erica, “Please, Please Tell Me How” – Erin Karpluk
King, “Lori Gilbert” – Amy Price-Francis
Haven, “Audrey Parker’s Day Off” – Emily Rose
Bomb Girls, “Armistice” – Meg Tilly

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Continuum, Featured, Industry News, Lost Girl

Syfy has what Canada doesn’t: faith in Canadian shows

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By Diane Wild of TV, eh?

TV, eh? doesn’t usually post about Canadian shows airing outside this country — it’s beyond the mandate and manpower of the site, besides winding up being a meaningless list. There’s a difference between CBS picking up Flashpoint for primetime versus Intelligence airing on an obscure channel in the US in syndication on Saturday nights, for example.

But Syfy programming an entire night around the Canadian imports Continuum, Lost Girl and Being Human goes beyond the usual foreign acquisition news. An American channel is doing what no Canadian network has the will or guts to do: airing a full night of Canadian scripted drama.

That’s bad enough, but the real shame of the Canadian television industry is that no Canadian broadcast network apart from CBC has three homegrown scripted shows on their current schedule, period. Unless I’m missing some information, no Canadian network at all, broadcast or cable, has three scripted Canadian shows.

This winter, Global has Bomb Girls. CTV will have Motive. That’s it. Both networks are putting some serious marketing muscle behind those original shows, a strategy that paid off for the high-rated Bomb Girls’ first season, and if Motive tanks behind its Super Bowl premiere, CTV can’t be accused of hiding their one scripted drama behind a bushel.

Citytv has already moved the Seed premiere (to February 4) and hasn’t provided a premiere date for Package Deal, but it’s too soon to tell if they’ll do right by those shows promotionally and schedually (no it’s not a word) speaking.

Besides Bomb Girls, which has proven itself a winner, we can’t judge these shows on quality yet. But I’m not talking quality, I’m talking quantity — quantity that doesn’t include Littlest Hobo reruns or airing the same show across multiple channels. I’m talking networks who are barely, if at all, fulfilling their CanCon requirements. I’m talking networks who wouldn’t survive without the ability to substitute their commercials into a US network’s programs, who are screwed if they lose the protection of simultaneous substitution, or when the business model of television changes — as it already is — so that owning and selling content matters more.

The positive spin on the Syfy news is that it’s proof Canada is pumping out quality science fiction shows. The negative is that even Space, the equivalent Canadian channel, is only airing two new scripted series spread over their schedule now, Primeval: New World and Being Human … and in a bonus slap in the face to CanCon pride, refers in media releases to their Muse-produced version as Being Human (US) to distinguish it from the UK original.

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Continuum, Featured

Simon Barry of Continuum talks Canadian TV with Rachel Langer

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By Rachel Langer for TV, eh?

I was fortunate enough to sit down with Simon Barry, the showrunner of one of my favorite new sci-fi series: Continuum.  Barry has written for feature films and television in both the US and Canada.  He was gracious enough to let me dissect his views on the writing room, TV in Canada, and the voracity of the science fiction fan.

You’ve written for both features and TV; can you talk about the difference in your process between those two things?

As far as movie projects go, a lot of the movie work is driven by assignments, adaptations, rewrites, and polishes, so the majority of that work tends to be, for me, taking other material and managing it into feature film mode, and it’s good work!  I mean, it’s great work for developing good habits, but it’s not the most creative work because you’re working within the constraints of previous material.

Whereas for TV, from my experience (and this is probably unique for me because I haven’t worked for anyone else in TV, I’ve only ever worked either developing original ideas or executing them), I find it to be more creatively fulfilling in that sense.  Not to say I don’t want to do movies — I absolutely love doing movies — but there is more on your shoulders in TV in terms of thinking everything through from not only the inception of the idea, the execution of the pilot, the planning of the series and then the management of all those other scripts, it’s a much more encompassing writer’s job.

In a movie job you can sort of be a cog in a bigger machine. In TV you’re part of the machine, so it’s a bit of a different approach. It’s the same craft, it’s just applied differently.

Continue reading Simon Barry of Continuum talks Canadian TV with Rachel Langer →

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