Tag Archives: Blue Ant Media

Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Blue Ant Media commissions Hoarders: Canada, produced by Saloon Media

From a media release:

Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Media company, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with A+E Networks to produce the format of the critically acclaimed series, Hoarders, marking the first-ever format commission for the series outside the USA. Under the title Hoarders: Canada, the series has been greenlit by Blue Ant Media for its Canadian programming slate. Hoarders: Canada follows a team of experts as they tackle some of Canada’s most challenging hoards, giving viewers an in-depth look at the emotional stories of those dealing with compulsive hoarding behaviours. Produced by the award-winning Saloon Media, nationwide casting for Hoarders: Canada will begin this month.

Hoarders: Canada will explore the world of extreme hoarding and provide an in-depth look at real-life stories of those directly affected by compulsive hoarding. Each episode will introduce viewers to individuals from across Canada as a team of experts try to help clean out massive hoards and assist with setting these individuals up for future success. Leading Canadian psychologists will work in tandem with extreme cleanup experts in an effort to help these families deal with a hoarding crisis of epic magnitude. Hoarders: Canada will premiere on Blue Ant Media’s specialty channel Makeful in late 2022.

Hoarders: Canada joins a roster of original TV formats commissioned by Blue Ant Media for its Canadian specialty channels, including Makeful’s Landscape Artist of the Year: Canada and Cottage Life’s highest-rated original series, Life Below Zero: Canada, produced by Saloon Media and now in its second season. Casting for Hoarders: Canada is now open and is accepting applications nationwide via hoarderscanadacasting.com.

Hoarders: Canada is based on the critically acclaimed A+E Networks series Hoarders. Franklin Cumberbatch and Peter Tarshis serve as executive producers for A+E Networks. Hoarders: Canada is produced by Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Media company. Shannon McKinnon serves as the Series Producer and Deborah MacDonald is the Supervising Producer. Michael Kot, Betty Orr and Pam Mcnair serve as Executive Producers.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Blue Ant Media greenlights two new original productions and orders four renewals for its Canadian TV platforms

From a media release:

Producer, distributor and channel operator Blue Ant Media announced today from Prime Time two new greenlights and four renewals set to debut in 2022 and 2023 across its Canadian specialty TV platforms: Cottage Life, T+E and Love Nature. The new additions reinforce Blue Ant Media’s commitment to create compelling, diverse and scalable series that offer a unique voice and perspective. Overseen by Sam Linton, VP, Head of Original Content, Canadian Media, Blue Ant Media, the originals lineup includes a mix of Canadian and world broadcast premieres with several series available for licensing globally by Blue Ant International.

To mark Cottage Life’s 35th anniversary this year, Blue Ant Media has greenlit the new documentary special Loons: A Cry from the Mist (wt)(World Broadcast Premiere), which chronicles a year in the life of the common loon. The beloved Canadian bird, synonymous with cottage country, has been the long-standing icon for the Cottage Life brand. Returning to Cottage Life is Dr. Savannah: Wild Rose Vet (Season 2), a Blue Ant and APTN co-production that has been renewed for a second season. The series profiles rural Alberta-based veterinarian Dr. Savannah Howse-Smith as she rescues and rehabilitates animals while also exploring her newly-discovered Métis heritage.

On T+E, Canada’s home to paranormal programming, the horror anthology series Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life (Season 2; Canadian Broadcast Premiere) has been renewed for a second season. Executive produced by the award-winning film director, producer, writer and actor Eli Roth (Inglourious Basterds, Hostel, The Last Exorcism) and Cream Productions, the Blue Ant Media and discovery+ co-production debuted to much success on T+E last October. To keep up with the paranormal demand, T+E’s original hit series, Haunted Hospitals (Season 4; Canadian Broadcast Premiere), returns for a fourth installment this fall 2022. The hit franchise saw Season 3 wrap as a top 10 primetime series on T+E. Finally, the all-new T+E eight-part docu-series Mission: Unexplained (Season 1; Canadian Broadcast Premiere) follows military veterans as they share the terrifying, unexplained events they witnessed on the front lines. The greenlight is part of the Blue Ant Media and Content Catalyst Fund (CCF) joint venture that backs women-led creatives in unscripted content, from development to production and distribution, for the Canadian and global marketplaces.

Returning to Love Nature, the 12-part documentary series Battle of the Alphas (Season 2; Canadian Broadcast Premiere) offers audiences an in-depth look at animal conflict, competition and the battle for supremacy. Season 2 of Battle of the Alphas is a Love Nature global commission, slated to air in Canada and roll out worldwide on Love Nature’s branded linear and streaming platforms in 2023.

Alongside the new original commissions, Blue Ant Media announced from Prime Time two current projects in development for Blue Ant Media’s Canadian broadcast channels, with the potential for licensing both series to other content companies via Blue Ant International. The projects, Haunted Goldrush (working title) and Expedition Great White, are unscripted, original documentaries that span the paranormal, wildlife and nature genres. Haunted Goldrush, executive produced by Sean De Vries, follows paranormal investigators Corine Carey, Leanne Sallenback and Kelly Ireland as they make their way up British Columbia’s historic and mysterious Gold Rush Trail. The route which runs through the famed Fraser Canyon up to the gold rush town of Barkerville was a bustling, wild and often violent place in the 1800s. But as soon as the gold was gone, so were the people. However, many locals believe some never left. On the east coast, Expedition Great White examines the dramatic rise of great white sharks spotted in Nova Scotia waters during the fall and summer months. The documentary is produced by Edward Peill, Tell Tale Productions (The Curse of Oak Island) and Ken MacDonald, former Vice President and General Manager for Discovery Channel in Canada. Overseen by Sam Linton, both development projects underpin Blue Ant Media’s commitment to work with regional producers across Canada and invest in high-quality, distinctive programming that resonate with audiences coast to coast.

For a full list of original programming highlights, please see below.

COTTAGE LIFE

Loons: A Cry from the Mist (wt) (1×60’; HD)
Scheduled for fall 2022 • World Broadcast Premiere
Producer: Yap Films
Loons: A Cry from the Mist (wt) chronicles a year in the life of Canada’s iconic bird, the common loon. Through the lens of cottagers, citizen scientists and bird experts, the documentary special examines the perils impacting the loon population—from global warming to boat traffic and big wakes disturbing their habitat. The special spotlights how Canada’s beloved loon is under threat. Distributed by Blue Ant International.

Dr. Savannah: Wild Rose Vet, Season 2 (13×30’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2023
A Blue Ant Media and APTN Co-production • Producer: Wapanatahk Media in partnership with Great Pacific Media
The series picks right back up at Alberta’s Rocky Rapids Veterinary Service, where mixed animal practitioner, Dr. Savannah Howse-Smith, rescues and rehabilitates a wide range of household pets and exotic wildlife. Dr. Savannah oversees new animal emergencies everyday at work, while also trying to learn more about her recently-discovered Métis heritage in her personal life.

T+E

Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life, Season 2 (8×60’; HD)
Scheduled for fall 2022 • Canadian Broadcast Premiere
A Blue Ant Media and discovery+ Co-production • Producer: Cream Productions
Executive produced by award-winning film director, producer, writer and actor Eli Roth, the original horror anthology series unveils shocking stories of real-life hauntings that have left emotional (and sometimes physical) scars on those unlucky enough to have experienced them. Horrific and evocative, each hour-long episode exposes viewers to the stories of survivors who have been dragged through hell and back and now struggle to rebuild their shattered lives.

Haunted Hospitals, Season 4 (10×60’; HD)
Scheduled for fall 2022 • Canadian Broadcast Premiere
Producer: BGM Inc., a Sphere Media company
Haunted Hospitals recounts the chilling stories of paranormal activity inside hospitals, nursing homes and morgues. In each episode, nurses, medical support workers and patients give first-hand accounts of the supernatural, such as deceased patients who return from the grave, ghost children who stalk medical staff and territorial spirits who lay claim to hospital hallways. As these personal testimonies unfold, the mysteries behind the troubled souls and hauntings become more alive than ever.

Mission: Unexplained, Season 1 (8×60’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2023 • Canadian Broadcast Premiere
Blue Ant Media and Content Catalyst Fund (CCF) joint venture • Producer: Blue Ant Studios
Mission: Unexplained follows military veterans as they share the terrifying, unexplained events they witnessed on the front lines. From mystifying lights to vanishing civilians, frightful apparitions to mechanical mysteries and more, the series gives audiences a front row seat to the action as veterans recount their harrowing experiences. Distributed by Blue Ant International.

LOVE NATURE

Battle of the Alphas, Season 2 (12×30’; HD)
Scheduled for 2023 • Canadian Broadcast Premiere
Producer: Yap Films
The battle of the alphas happens across the planet every day: babies compete for their mother’s milk, adolescents play-fight and adults become aggressive when their leadership is challenged or when they’re in search of a mate. From friendly competition to territorial battles, the all new season delves into the science behind animal conflict. Distributed by Blue Ant International.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

T+E’s Bathsheba: Search for Evil serves up a history lesson with its scares

Anyone who visits this site already knows I love paranormal programming. I’m especially fond of the series that delves into the true tales behind the spookiness, marrying fact with what some regard as myth.

T+E has knocked out out of the park with scary series before, but the two-part documentary Bathsheba: Search for Evil, debuting Monday on the specialty channel, has reached another level.

Airing as part of its “Creep Week,” event programming, Bathsheba explores the true story behind The Conjuring. The 2013 feature film, starring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as demonologists Lorraine and Ed Warren, was a box office smash. Now, Bathsheba pulls back the curtain on the Perron family—and the house—at the centre of the story. The entire Perron family was terrorized by an evil paranormal presence, a 19th-century ghost believed by many to be a witch named Bathsheba Sherman, who allegedly haunted generations of families that had taken residence within her remote grounds. Anchored by first-hand accounts from the living Perron family members and paranormal investigator Erin Goodpipe (APTN’s The Other Side), Bathsheba separates fact from fiction, with disturbing results.

“The original camera operator had nightmares for several days and quit the project,” series producer and director Sunny Grewal says. “They had done the first batch of interviews and were supposed to visit and film on-site, and they basically said, ‘Sorry, not sorry.'” The interviews are pretty intense stuff. Regardless of whether you personally believe in ghosts, hauntings and the paranormal, something happened to the Perron family in what was named the Old Arnold Estate.

Investigator Erin Goodpipe

The odd stuff isn’t contained to behind-the-scenes either. In Monday’s premiere, something happens behind Goodpipe that is, luckily, captured on camera. There was, Grewal says, no explanation for the occurrence.

Aside from intimate interviews with members of the Perron family—sisters Cindy, Christine, Andrea, Nancy and father Roger all participate— and current homeowners Cory and Jennifer Heinzen, Bathsheba gets to the heart of the woman the documentary is named after.

Bathsheba Sherman, born in 1812, was a farm wife, but rumours swirled. Myths claimed she was malicious. Townspeople hated her, believing she killed a baby with a sewing needle and sacrificed it to the devil in exchange for eternal youth and beauty. Bathsheba attempts to get the facts right, and credit goes to Grewal and her team for being respectful in their storytelling of the living and the dead.

“One of the things I am most happy about is, it’s essentially a very female story, between [the late] Carolyn [Perron] and the sisters and then Bathsheba herself,” Grewal says. “Bathsheba was a real person, who has been collateral damage in some respects.”

Bathsheba: Search for Evil airs Monday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on T+E.

Images courtesy of Blue Ant Media.

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Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Blue Ant Media celebrates 10-year anniversary with 10 new and returning original productions for its Canadian broadcast channels

From a media release:

To mark Blue Ant Media’s 10-year anniversary this September, the international producer, distributor and channel operator announced today 10 new and returning originals to premiere on its portfolio of Canadian specialty networks. The new premium programming lineup includes outdoor lifestyle and survival shows, paranormal anthology series, compelling documentaries and relevant specials with several programs available for licensing globally by Blue Ant International. Overseen by Sam Linton, Head of Original Content, Blue Ant Media, the new commissioning slate will begin airing on the media company’s Canadian channels this fall and into 2022, with several series premiering during nationwide free preview events.

Cottage Life’s highest-rated original, Life Below Zero: Canada (Season 2; World Broadcast Premiere), has been renewed for a second season. Based on the Emmy® Award-winning format Life Below Zero, created and produced by BBC Studios’ Los Angeles production arm, the Canadian adaptation follows a diverse group of individuals surviving in the coldest and most remote regions of Canada. The second installment is co-produced by Blue Ant Media, Quebecor Content and APTN. Also returning to Cottage Life, the Blue Ant Media and APTN co-production Merchants of the Wild (Season 4; Broadcast Premiere) has been renewed for a fourth season. The series follows six Indigenous Adventurers who spend 25 days living off the land in the vast territory known to the L’nu (Mi’kmaq) people as Kespukwitk (lands end), and known to non-Indigenous people as the Southern Nova Scotia. They must use the teachings from the L’nu Elders and Knowledge Holders, who they meet along the way, to help them on their journey and reconnect to who they are as Indigenous Peoples. Finally, Blue Ant Media has greenlit a third installment of Ice Vikings (Season 3; World Broadcast Premiere), which follows fearless descendants of Icelandic Vikings as they battle the elements to keep ice fishing alive on Manitoba’s Lake Winnipeg, reeling in big fish and fat paycheques along the way. Blue Ant Media has also acquired Seasons 1 and 2 of the Ice Vikings franchise to air on Cottage Life. Both Life Below Zero: Canada, Season 2 and Ice Vikings, Season 3 are scheduled to premiere on Cottage Life during the channel’s nationwide free preview event in spring 2022.

On T+E, Canada’s home to paranormal programming, the new original anthology series Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life (Season 1; Canadian Broadcast Premiere) examines horrifying real-life stories of hauntings experienced by everyday people. Executive produced by the award-winning film director, producer, writer and actor Eli Roth (Inglourious Basterds, Hostel, The Last Exorcism) and Cream Productions, the Blue Ant Media and discovery+ co-production features chilling eyewitness accounts and dramatic reconstructions reminiscent of Roth’s vivid cinematic masterpieces. Also new on T+E, The Lost Colony of Roanoke (Season 1; Canadian Broadcast Premiere), follows a team of archaeologists as they dig for evidence that could help solve one of America’s oldest and most controversial mysteries: what happened to the English colony on Roanoke Island? Featuring exclusive interviews, never-before-seen archaeological evidence and cutting-edge scientific analysis, the series offers compelling theories on the fate of the first European colony in the Americas, who settled on Roanoke Island in 1587 and suddenly vanished without a trace. The Lost Colony of Roanoke will premiere in spring 2022 during T+E’s nationwide free preview event.

The new documentary series Griff’s Great Canadian Adventure (Canadian Broadcast Premiere) marks the first original commission for BBC First in Canada since Blue Ant Media launched the channel in partnership with BBC Studios in March 2021. The six-part series, co-produced by Nikki Ray Media Agency and EQ Media Group, in association with Blue Ant Media, Channel 4, Abacus Media Rights, Quiver Entertainment, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The History Channel (NZ), follows Welsh comedian and travel enthusiast Griff Rhys Jones on an epic journey across the commonwealth country as he explores Canadian cultures and traditions.

Blue Ant Media has greenlit two new Canadian documentary specials, The Digital Divide (working title) (Season 1; World Broadcast Premiere) and Strange Creatures (working title) (Season 1; World Broadcast Premiere), for its premium factual channel, BBC Earth. This is the first time Blue Ant Media has commissioned originals for BBC Earth in Canada since the channel launched in partnership with BBC Studios in 2017. The Digital Divide (working title) explores the growing chasm between the have and have-nots of digital, mobile and satellite technology. The timely documentary special looks at how COVID-19 exposed the underlying reality that not everyone can afford essential digital devices and examines the significant implications it has on society when there is not an equal playing ground to access technology. The special will have a digital premiere on the MobileSyrup website, a Blue Ant Media-owned company and Canada’s leading technology news website, before airing on BBC Earth. Strange Creatures (working title, a nature and wildlife documentary, is a one-hour spinoff special to Blue Ant Media’s hit YouTube series, Animalogic. Hosted by Animalogic’s scientific illustrator, Danielle Dufault, the special explores Canada’s unusual and fascinating creatures. Both documentary specials are scheduled to premiere in spring 2022 on BBC Earth during the channel’s nationwide free preview event.

On Smithsonian Channel in Canada, the Blue Ant Media and Channel 5 co-production, World’s Most Scenic River Journeys (Season 2; Canadian Premiere) has been renewed for a second season. Narrated by Golden Globe®, Tony and BAFTA award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), the documentary series takes audiences on a visually stunning trip alongside some of the most beautiful and famous rivers around the world. Also new is History by the Numbers (Canadian Broadcast Premiere), an energetic, fast-paced 20-part series about the extraordinary and often overlooked numbers that help us decode world history. Each episode delves into the numbers to give audiences unimaginable numerical facts and top stats behind a different subject – from the massive growth of the global fast-food empire to the wealth and bloodshed of the world’s top crime bosses, the herculean numbers behind Mount Everest, the lives of the richest people on earth, and so much more. The series offers a fresh perspective on how the world adds up today. History by the Numbers is scheduled to premiere in winter 2022 on Smithsonian Channel in Canada during the channel’s nationwide free preview event.

Additional original commissions will be announced by Blue Ant Media in the coming months.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

T+E explores the unexplained as new original series Encounter: UFO premieres Tuesday, August 10

From a media release:

A national survey, commissioned by Canada’s leading paranormal television broadcaster T+E and conducted by market research firm Ipsos, reveals one in 10 Canadians claim to have seen an unidentified flying object. Among the 1,000 Canadians polled, more than half (56%) believe in UFOs, while a majority 65% believe intelligent extraterrestrial life exists. The belief that aliens exist is more prevalent among men (70%) than women (61%), and among Millennials (69%) and Gen X’ers (71%) than Boomers (58%).

The survey was commissioned by T+E ahead of the premiere of the broadcaster’s new original series Encounter: UFO. The eight-part docuseries weaves together powerful and credible first-hand accounts of UFO encounters and abductions, authentic video evidence and dramatic paranormal reenactments, while expert contributors explore the world-shattering realities of the witnessed events. The world broadcast premiere of Encounter: UFO airs Tuesday, August 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, exclusively on T+E.

According to the survey results, close encounters of the alien kind are most likely to happen in the Prairies: 16% of Saskatchewan and Manitoba residents claim to have seen a UFO, compared to 10% of Quebecers, 9% of Ontarians, 8% of Albertans, 7% of British Columbians, and just 5% of Atlantic Canadians. Men (64%) are significantly more likely than women (48%) to believe in UFOs and to claim they have seen one (11% vs. 7%).

Acclaimed Canadian science writer, ufologist and expert contributor in T+E’s new series Encounter: UFO, Chris Rutkowski says the survey results are in line with his own research. Rutkowski has collected and analyzed Canadian UFO report data since the 1970s and published the Canadian UFO Survey since 1989. “Canada has a long history of UFO sightings; they are more common than we think. About 1,000 UFO reports are filed in Canada every year, and there were more reports during the pandemic,” says Rutkowski. “When it comes to speculating about aliens visiting earth, most Canadians expect interstellar visitors to be friendly like E.T., and unlike the villainous aliens you see in films like Independence Day.”

Audiences who watch T+E’s all-new original series Encounter: UFO will hear from over 24 eyewitnesses from across the globe who swear they’ve seen unidentified flying objects, high-speed saucers and flashing bright lights in the night sky. One episode explores one of Canada’s most infamous UFO encounters, the case of Stefan Michalak, who reported being burned by a UFO in the wilderness of Falcon Lake, Manitoba, and features an in-depth interview with Stefan’s son, Stan Michalak. Encounter: UFO also delves into Canada’s best-documented UFO sighting in Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. This paranormal event involves a UFO crash landing in the waters off Shag Harbour that was witnessed by several onlookers and resulted in a series of RCMP reports. UFO researcher and author Chris Styles, who played an integral role in the investigation, speaks about this mysterious incident in the docuseries.

Encounter: UFO is produced by Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Studios company. Michael Kot, Betty Orr, Nick Crowe, Pam McNair and Paul Kilback serve as Executive Producers. Brian Rice is the Director and Series Producer.

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