TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 6
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television

Blue Ant Media announces its latest slate of original Canadian programming

From a media release:

International production studio, rights business and channel operator, Blue Ant Media, kicked off day one of Prime Time by announcing new and returning Canadian series for the company’s specialty TV and international free streaming platforms in 2024.

The slate includes My Haunted Hometown, a new paranormal series filmed across North America; Wild Rose Vets, a spin-off of the original series Dr. Savannah: Wild Rose Vet; and Hope for Wildlife: The Next Generation (w/t), a new season of the hit franchise Hope for Wildlife. Further, Blue Ant Media has ordered two additional episodes of the previously-announced eight-part series Mysteries From Above, Season 3, following the ratings success of the franchise.

Blue Ant’s latest originals slate is overseen by Sam Linton, VP, Production and Development, Global Media and Julie Chang, EVP, Business Strategy & Co-Productions. Blue Ant Studios rights division will handle pre-sales and licensing opportunities worldwide for all the titles.

The latest original slate comes after the previously announced Holmes on Homes: Building a Legacy, which is currently casting GTA homeowners in need of a life-changing renovation via makeitright.ca/casting-call/.

Titles across the unscripted originals slate include:

Cottage Life/Love Pets

Wild Rose Vets (13 x 30; HD)
A Blue Ant Media and APTN Co-production
Producer: Wapanatahk Media in partnership with Great Pacific Media

Scheduled to air in spring 2025 on Cottage Life in Canada during the channel’s nationwide free preview, with a subsequent window on the free streaming channel Love Pets in multiple territories worldwide

A heartwarming and culturally-unique docuseries following the behind-the-scenes adventures of three Indigenous veterinarians in the prairies as they rescue and rehabilitate a wide range of household pets and exotic wildlife. The daily experiences of these young vets in very different clinics could not be more varied but they are each driven and connected by their love of animals. Blue Ant Studios rights division handles pre-sales and licensing opportunities worldwide. The series will also broadcast and stream on APTN’s channels and platform in Canada (date TBC).  

Hope for Wildlife: The Next Generation (w/t) (8 x 60′; HD)
Producer: Arcadia Entertainment

World broadcast premiere scheduled to air on Cottage Life in early 2025, with a subsequent window on the free streaming channel Love Pets in multiple territories worldwide

The series takes audiences inside a world-class rehabilitation center in Nova Scotia. Led by the compassionate and trailblazing Hope Swinimer, the show follows her team’s efforts to rescue, treat and release injured and orphaned wildlife. As Hope grows the operation and prepares for her eventual passing of the torch, the series introduces us to a new generation of caregivers, trained to continue her lifelong mission of compassion toward animals. Witness dramatic rescues, miraculous recoveries, and emotional releases in this inspiring journey of hope and healing. Blue Ant Studios rights division handles pre-sales and licensing opportunities worldwide.

Cottage Life

Mysteries from Above, Season 3 (10 × 60’; HD)
Producer: Blue Ant Studios

World broadcast premiere is scheduled for spring 2024 on Cottage Life in Canada during the channel’s nationwide free preview

Previously renewed as an eight-part series, Blue Ant Media has ordered two more episodes of Mysteries from Above, Season 3. The popular series takes to the skies to unlock Earth’s greatest mysteries and dramatically change how we see the world. From the vantage points of drones, satellites and aerial photography, the series explores unique buildings and structures — both natural and man-made, curious creatures and lost ancient civilizations, revealing fascinating insights and never-before-seen footage to the viewers. Mysteries from Above, Season 1 and Season 2 both featured in the top 10 primetime series with total viewers, as well as Cottage Life’s core demographic of adults 25-54 and women 25-54. Blue Ant Studios rights division handles pre-sales and licensing opportunities worldwide.

T+E/HauntTV

My Haunted Hometown (8 x 60′)
Producer: Blue Ant Studios

World broadcast premiere scheduled in October 2024 on T+E during the channel’s nationwide free preview and its Creep Week programming event, with a subsequent window on the free streaming channel HauntTV in multiple territories worldwide

My Haunted Hometown follows the terrifying first-hand accounts of paranormal encounters in haunted small towns across North America. The documentary series reveals how many small towns are home to frightening supernatural activity; vengeful spirits torment residents. Each episode showcases true stories of individuals, families, and friends who built their lives in the community but now feel trapped, haunted and unable to escape. Blue Ant Studios rights division handles pre-sales and licensing opportunities worldwide.

Blue Ant Media is a privately held international production studio and rights business and channel operator. The company’s studio creates and distributes a premium slate of programming in all content genres for streaming and broadcasting platforms around the world.

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Global greenlights Season 4 of original scripted series Family Law

From a media release:

All rise! Today, Global announced that hit Canadian legal drama Family Law has been greenlit for a fourth season with 10 all-new episodes. Produced by SEVEN24 Films and Lark Productions, and created by Canadian award-winning author Susin Nielsen, Season 4 starts production in Vancouver this March. Jewel Staite, Victor Garber, Zach Smadu, Genelle Williams and Lauren Holly are all set to return for the new season. This renewal comes ahead of the show’s highly anticipated Season 3 Canadian premiere, set to be announced later this year.

Season 4 of the hit Canadian legal drama Family Law finds Abigail Bianchi (Jewel Staite) tackling intriguing new cases as she juggles work, family, and her love life. Abigail’s father Harry (Victor Garber), and her half-siblings Daniel (Zach Smadu) and Lucy (Genelle Williams) face their own unique challenges, balancing their ever-complicated professional and personal lives. The team continues to grapple with unconventional cases this season including surrogacy, parental liability and “rental families” – all while managing their own fraught family dynamics.

Viewers can catch up on Seasons 1 and 2 of Family Law only on STACKTV and the Global TV App.

Family Law is produced by SEVEN24 Films (HeartlandJANN) and Lark Productions (Allegiance, Law and Order Toronto: Criminal Intent). It was created by Susin Nielsen (Robson ArmsCedar Cove), who also serves as executive producer and showrunner. The series is executive produced by Jordy Randall, Tom Cox, Erin Haskett and Andy Mikita. This season’s writers include Sarah Dodd, Ken Craw, Sonja Bennett and Corey Liu. Directors include Andy Mikita, David Frazee, Alysse Leite-Rogers, Siobhan Devine and Damon Vignale.eOne distributes the series internationally.

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New Metric Media partners with Encore to develop bilingual rom-com heist series

From a media release:

Award-winning comedy entertainment studio New Metric Media has partnered with Quebec’s premiere production company Encore to co-produce the untitled, rom-com mini-series involving a Quebecois family and an Anglo-Ontarian family reluctantly coming together despite their differences for an unforgettable wedding weekend. The project is based on a concept created by Mark Montefiore, Founder and CEO, New Metric Media.

“We’re excited to collaborate with the insanely talented producteurs d’Encore on this hilarious nouvelle serie that will transcend barriers de la langue and playfully bridge the gap between Québécois and English cultures, all while laughing at it at the same time,” commented Montefiore (above left). “This project is a celebration of inclusivity, laughter and the unique charm that defines le coeur du Canada.”

“As comedy is part of Encore’s DNA, nous sommes très heureux to work with New Metric Media. With Mark, his incredibly talented team, and a project that made us rire at the first words, it was only natural for us to join forces. We dated for a while and finally said OUI to each other!”, say Julie Provençal (above right), President of Encore.

The untitled rom-com is My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets Bon Cop Bad Cop in a culture clash heist about a young couple from two different provinces whose wedding threatens to divide them rather than unite after the gift box of cash money goes missing from their already fractious ceremony. The Québécois blame the Anglos and the Anglos blame the Québécois sending the whodunnit mystery into all-out civil (union) war and threatens to drag their holy matrimony along with it.

About New Metric Media
Based in Toronto, New Metric Media is an award-winning independent entertainment studio specializing in building comedy brands across tv production, live entertainment, distribution, merchandising and licensing. Recipient of Playback’s 2022 Production Company of the Year award and the Banff World Media Festival’s 2018 Innovative Producer Award, the company’s slate of programming includes the hit Crave/Hulu original comedy Letterkenny, the Crave/Hulu Letterkenny spinoff series Shoresy, the CTV/CW/Roku half-hour comedy series Children Ruin Everything, as well as the new half-hour Crave comedy series Bria Mack Gets A Life.

New Metric Media is recognized as a leader in 360 degree brand marketing and its success with Letterkenny off-screen extensions, including beer, collectible merchandise and Letterkenny LIVE!, a sold-out North American theatre tour featuring the stars of the series.

About Groupe Encore
Created in Montreal in 2000, Encore is an integrated entertainment group, one of the most prolific production companies in scripted series (comedy and drama), live comedy specials, live plays, and artist management in French Canada.

With nearly 700 hours produced, Encore Television multiplies the production of millionaire and award-winning TV series praised both on the local and global markets.  Licensed in more than 100 countries as originals or adaptations, hit series like Les beaux malaises, Bête noire (Dark Soul), Fugueuse (Runaway), Pour Sarah (For Sarah), Léo, Boomerang, La candidate (The Candidate), Lâcher prise (Freefall) are amongst the highest-rated series in Québec.

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Preview: The Nature of Things “I am the Magpie River” spotlights a waterway with personhood rights

Can nature have rights? That’s the question at the heart of Thursday’s new episode of The Nature of Things.

In “I am the Magpie River,” airing Thursday at 9 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem, filmmaker Susan Fleming answers the question with a resounding yes. The 200-kilometre river, in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, flows from the Labrador Plateau into the north shore of the St. Lawrence River near Sept-Îles, Quebec.

The waterway is sacred to the Innu First Nation, who call it Mutuhekau Shipu, and they’ve depended on it as a major highway and food source for centuries. And that’s why, as of 2021, the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the Minganie Regional County Municipality had the river declared a legal person. The result? The river has nine rights, including the right to flow, to be free from pollution, and to sue.

Gorgeously filmed, with aerial drone shots capturing the rugged river in its savage glory through the seasons and up-close footage of the area’s unique flora and fauna (including herds of caribou), Fleming shows the awesome strength of the waterway during the spring melt. And it’s the power of the Magpie that Hydro Quebec—which is the fourth largest producer of hydropower on the planet—would love to have a piece of. And that’s the point of personhood: to protect the river from being changed, being taken advantage of, and being tamed.

The Magpie River may be the first in Canada to be granted personhood, but it is just the latest in many around the world. Indigenous-led campaigns like that done by the Innu in Canada have saved the Klamath River in the U.S., the Whanganui River in New Zealand, and the Amazon in Columbia.

The Nature of Things, “I am the Magpie River,” airs Thursday at 9 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.

Image from “I am the Magpie River.

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Links: Sight Unseen, Season 1

From Heather M. of The Televixen:

Link: Karen and Nikolijne Troubetzkoy Preview Sight Unseen
Y’all know I’m ride or die on Killjoys, so I was thrilled when we heard last year that CTV had greenlit a new drama from Killjoys alumni and sisters Karen and Nikolijne (Niko) Troubetzkoy – Karen was an executive producer and Niko was a writer and producer. Separately, they’ve also worked on shows ranging from Orphan Black to The Lake to SkyMed to Transplant to Culprits and more. Continue reading.

From Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald:

Link: Calgary expat Agam Darshi delves into complex character in CTV’s new high-concept cop drama, Sight Unseen
“It was really a wonderful collaborative experience, but I feel like I was given a lot of freedom by both the directors as well as (co-creators Karen and Nikolijne Troubetzkoy) to explore this character in the way I wanted to explore her and really dive deep in the way that wanted to.” Continue reading.

From Dana Gee of the Vancouver Sun:

Link: New drama Sight Unseen pairs clinically blind detective with agoraphobic true crime fan
“This show brings so many things together. It’s romance, it’s drama, it’s comedy, it’s real relationships, it’s professional challenges, it’s technology, it’s crime-solving. And, to me, that means it is a very human story that everybody can relate to in some way.” Continue reading.

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