Tag Archives: Slice

Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

The Real Housewives of Toronto oozes wealth and drama on Slice

You know what you’re going to get from The Real Housewives franchise. Cameras follow a gaggle of ladies as they go about their highfalutin lives, juggling cocktail parties and galas, strutting red carpets and posing for pictures, hanging out and complaining about how simply awful their lives are.

So, is The Real Housewives of Toronto—bowing Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Slice—like all the others? Yup, and that’s just fine if you enjoy it. If that’s not your cup of expensive, shipped directly from the source, organically-grown tea, then you should skip the program altogether.

“When you have money and a fabulous life, lots of people want to be your ‘friend,'” fashionista Kara Alloway warns during the opening tease. (Thankfully, I have never had that problem.)

Set against a poppy, bass-driven soundtrack we meet Roxy Earle, who is equally unapologetic about her body as she is her personality. And why shouldn’t she be? Confident and opinionated, she’s the type of woman who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, and I love her for it. (If only she wouldn’t refer to herself in the third person.) Roxy’s husband is older than her, her dog has a private chef and is groomed every other week, and she spends weekends in Turks and Caicos.

Then it’s on to Ann Kaplan Mulholland, who lives in tony Forest Hill and started a finance company when she was a single mother. Now it’s one of the biggest in Canada. Ann is a sharp contrast to Roxy; older, married to plastic surgeon Stephen Mulholland, and an avid collector of diamonds.

I won’t introduce the other ladies in the cast—I’ll let viewers enjoy the entrances and backstories of Kara Alloway, Grego Minot, Joan Kelley Walker and Jana Webb themselves—but suffice it to say slow-motion walking, clothes shopping (in Kara’s case, with Jesus as her wingman), smoothies, workouts and lunches are the most stressful events faced by the six in Episode 1.

The Real Housewives of Toronto certainly isn’t Cardinal or Bellevue and it’s not supposed to be. A series like this is meant to be ogled, analyzed and enjoyed like the entertaining confection it is. So go ahead and do it.

The Real Housewives of Toronto airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Slice.

Image courtesy of Corus.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Season 2 of First Dates returns to Slice on March 14

From a media release:

Canadian original series, First Dates is back for a thrilling second season featuring a brand new restaurant, all-new staff, and six hundred daters looking for love. In each episode, connections are made, hearts are broken, and plenty of awkward moments are captured as cameras catch relationship hopefuls on blind dates looking to find that special someone. A new season of First Dates (14×30) premieres Tuesday, March 14 with back-to-back episodes at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on Slice â„¢.

Filmed in downtown Vancouver, the series is situated in a local restaurant that is filled with real people on real first dates, and the ensuing drama is captured on over 40 remote-controlled cameras. For some daters, there is an instant and very apparent attraction, but for others, it’s clear there is never going to be a happy ending.

The action jumps from table to table as some dates move painfully along, while other dates enjoy every single moment of their time together. Half-concealed looks of hope and disappointment, flirtatious hair twirling, and under the table hand-holding are all captured. The greatest part of First Dates is the ending. After the bill has been paid, the couples are filmed side by side and reveal whether or not they are attracted to each other and if they want to meet again.

Based on the hit format from Warner Bros. International Television Production, First Dates is a co-production between Force Four Entertainment and Remedy Canada Productions, in association with Corus Entertainment.
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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Introducing the six from the 6ix: Slice reveals The Real Housewives of Toronto

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From a media release:

This March share in all the glitz, glamour and drama that Toronto has to offer with The Real Housewives of Toronto premiering Tuesday, March 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Sliceâ„¢. The hotly anticipated 10×60 series follows six of Toronto’s most privileged, powerful and glamorous women as they navigate the elite social scene of Canada’s largest city. Watch as the ladies open up their extravagant lives and share every shocking moment as they deal with the ups and downs of relationships, careers and family.

The wait is over. Meet The Real Housewives of Toronto:

  • Kara Alloway – devout fashionista, mother of three.
  • Roxy Earle – outspoken jet-setter and entrepreneur.Gregoriane (Grego) Minot – proud mother and life of the party.
  • Gregoriane (Grego) Minot – proud mother and life of the party.
  • Ann Kaplan Mulholland – sharp businesswoman with an even sharper wit.
  • Joan Kelley Walker – small town girl living the big city dream life.
  • Jana Webb – sizzling fitness CEO and single mother.

The housewives juggle many responsibilities including families, growing empires, multiple homes and jam-packed social calendars. Throughout the series, cameras follow them at home in Toronto, north to Ontario’s playground for the rich and famous, Muskoka, and across the ocean to Barcelona, Spain. The housewives live large in every sense; dining at Toronto’s top restaurants, attending lavish soirées, travelling first class to luxurious destinations, and shopping for the very best designer clothes, shoes and jewelry. But not all that glitters is gold as the women deal with the highs and lows of living large in the big city.

The Real Housewives of Toronto is the latest series to join The Real Housewives franchise, which includes Orange County, New York City, Atlanta, New Jersey, Beverly Hills, Dallas, Potomac and international additions from England, Australia, New Zealand and Vancouver.

The series is produced by Lark Productions, in association with Corus Entertainment’s Slice™.

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Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Slice scores second season of original series First Dates

From a media release:

Shaw Media has greenlit a second season of Slice™’s scintillating series First Dates, with production and casting underway now. The First Dates matchmakers have begun an extensive search for a diverse mix of singles looking to be paired up on a blind date in hopes of finding that special someone. Produced by Force Four Entertainment and Remedy Canada Productions, in association with Shaw Media, First Dates is a docuseries that sets single men and women up on a first date with cameras capturing all their real and romantic moments. The second season of First Dates will air on Slice in 2016 and the entire first season can be watched online at slice.ca along with exclusive digital extras.

First Dates is looking for Canadians of all genders, orientations, ages, backgrounds, and professions who are single and actively looking, or at least open to the prospect of finding someone special. The series will be filmed in Vancouver this Spring, and all Canadians are welcome to apply. The casting site also allows people to nominate friends or family for the show through the same online application process. Online applications for First Dates can be filled out by visiting slice.ca/casting-call. Applicants must be 19 years of age or older, available for filming in the Vancouver area, and must provide a headshot of themselves.

Hailed as “wonderful” and “utterly beguiling” by The Globe and Mail, First Dates gives viewers a gripping look at the hope, charm, attractions, awkwardness, heartaches, connections, and the stakes of a first date. Each episode showcases a restaurant of singles who have been hand matched for a blind date with someone they’ve never met. The restaurant is fitted with 35 fixed-rig cameras capturing every moment, from potential sparks to awkward small talk, flirtatious glances, and sometimes forced smiles. In Season 1, the First Dates restaurant hosted over 300 first dates, which led to 50 smooches and 100 second dates.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

First Dates gets messy for Slice (and Global)

Update: Season 1 of Slice’s First Dates is being re-broadcast on Global starting this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET. Here’s what I wrote about the show when it debuted last September on Slice.

There’s a wall-sized sign on the wall in the restaurant where First Dates is filmed. The sign says: Things Can Get Messy, and it’s a pretty apt discription of Slice’s latest original series.

Filmed in one of Earls’ Vancouver locations, First Dates uses Big Brothers setup of filming with a multitude of cameras and microphones that capture every step—and misstep—single Canadians make on the dating scene.

Tuesday’s debut focuses on a trio of blind dates that run the gamut from success to bona fide train wreck. This being a nice Canadian production, however, there are no tears and screaming when a match isn’t made, though you can tell from Billi-Ann’s body language she just isn’t feeling it with Charles. Perhaps it’s his penchant for speaking in the third person, or his intimate knowledge of drinks with college-level amounts of booze in them. Regardless, it doesn’t take long for viewers to realize this HR dude by day, party guy by night, is no match for Billi-Ann.

Shaw Media

Much more successful are Denai and Edward, who flirt their way through dinner, aided by her numerous comments about his cuteness, his endless muscle flexing and a shocking moment where he undoes his pants during the appetizer course. Is this the way the kids act during dates nowadays? Are they at the point where twenty somethings throw caution to the wind and flash some skivvy to attract attention? Apparently.

That’s not to say First Dates isn’t highly enjoyable. It is, if you’re looking for pure guilty pleasure entertainment. First Dates the perfect show to sit and watch with friends so that you can laugh, poke fun at—and perhaps commiserate—along with for an hour.

First Dates airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET on Global.

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