All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.
Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Dave Salmoni to host S2 of Game of Homes for W Network; Colin & Justin resident judges

From a media release:

W Network’s epic original production Game of Homes (8×60) is pleased to announce experienced television host and frequent late-night guest Dave Salmoni(Expedition Impossible, appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno) as series host and dynamic interior design duo Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan (Colin and Justin’s Home Heist, Colin & Justin’s Cabin Pressure) as the resident judges. Produced by Great Pacific Mediain association with W Network, Game of Homes Season 2 is currently in production in Toronto and is set to premiere on W Network in Spring 2016.

Multi-talented Sarnia, Ontario native Dave Salmoni is an internationally recognized on-air television host, animal trainer, and television producer. He is best known as the host of the Mark Burnett reality series Expedition Impossible on ABC, as the host of several television documentary series on Animal Planet and Discovery Channel US including Deadly Islands and Rogue Nature, and for his animal handling guest spots on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Chelsea Lately and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, to name a few. He is a large predator expert, with a specialty in re-wilding captive-born tigers and lions. He has survived shark and lion attacks and has his own production company based in South Africa that specializes in wildlife films. Taking over the reins from former host and Entertainment Tonight correspondent, Cameron Mathison, Salmoni goes from taking care of giant tigers to taking care of tired and worn out renovation teams. Salmoni brings a passion for renovation and the expertise he has learned from his wife, who is an accomplished interior designer.

As host of Game of Homes, Salmoni guides four teams of skilled amateur home renovators as they compete for the chance to trade their skills for the prize of a lifetime – their own home and a plot of land to put it on. The teams save rundown houses from the wrecking ball and week-by-week, revive them into dream homes, one room at a time. Each team works side-by-side, around the clock, to completely transform these dumps into show homes – while also living in them through the entire renovation. They will battle small budgets, tight deadlines, cramped quarters and each other for a chance to win a home and change their lives forever.

Game_Homes2

Previous guest judges on Game of Homes Season 1, Colin and Justin return as resident judges this season. Well-known interior designers, style commentators, Hollywood celebrity interviewers and all round lifestyle gurus who hail from Glasgow, Scotland, the duo have hosted 11 television series that air worldwide, from the BBC show Million Pound Property Experiment and ITV’s The 60 Minute Makeover to Colin and Justin’s Home Heist (HGTV) and Colin & Justin’s Cabin Pressure (Cottage Life). The pair are resident design experts on City TV’s Cityline and appear regularly on chat shows in Canada and the UK. They are guest judges on The Block, Australia’s biggest property show and designers on The Living Room, also in Australia. Their newspaper columns appear weekly in the Toronto Sun, 24 Hours Toronto, 24 Hours Vancouver and the London Free Press. They contribute to both the Huffington Post Canada and Design Sponge, writing décor and lifestyle features.

Bringing that expertise to the series, in each episode of Game of Homes, Colin and Justin vote for their favourite room renovations based on design and workmanship, working alongside a stellar cast of celebrity guest judges. In the finale, in addition to the judges, the public also casts their votes, and in the dramatic and life-changing conclusion, the winning team is awarded their spectacular new home.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Nightclub Confidential shimmies into Season 3

I stopped going out to clubs a long time ago. Back then, the local place I ended up featured requisite creamy shooters like Sex on the Beach and I drank my weight in Long Island Iced Teas. Now, over two decades later, I’m reliving the experience through the eyes of the folks working at Tequila NightClub in Nightclub Confidential.

Returning Thursday on City Saskatchewan—and available following each broadcast on the show’s website—Season 3 of Fahrenheit Films’ Nightclub Confidential catches up with owners Simon Papadopoulos and Bryan “Chunk” Pawlachuk as they try to make a go of it in the nightclub scene.

Season 2 ended on a sad note: Chunk decided to retire from the club game, prepped to sell off Tequila and went on vacation with his wife and kids. That left president Simon with a boring daytime gig and bouncer Mitch Gauvin out of the business and focusing on fitness and his relationship with Gina.

Picking up several months later, the plan to sell off the building fell through and Simon has taken on the day-to-day running of Tequila. Chunk is the landlord and looks for excuses to drop by and judge Simon’s way of running a business. And while Simon is enjoying playing boss, he’s having a hard time acting like one: he’s happy to hold staff nights and be the nice guy but a lack of respect from the DJs in Episode 1 grates on his nerves. Chunk, busier than ever thanks to a gig at Metric Design Centre and another child on the way with wife Nathalie, has nothing but stern words for Simon, who’s struggling to organize a New Year’s Eve party to ring in 2015.

Featuring smoke machines, blinding spotlights, a throbbing beat, scantily-clad customers and larger-than-life characters, Nightclub Confidential is an entertaining fly-on-the-wall peek at the successes and stresses of running a nightclub. It ain’t all shooters and sexiness.

Nightclub Confidential airs Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. on City Saskatchewan. Episodes stream for the rest of the country on the show’s website.

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Industry News

CBC/Radio-Canada wins broadcast rights to Olympic Games in 2022 and 2024

From a media release:

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced that CBC/Radio-Canada has secured the Canadian broadcast rights for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and the 2024 Olympic Games. With today’s announcement, CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s Olympic Network and Official Broadcaster for the next five Olympic Games including Rio 2016, Pyeongchang 2018, and Tokyo 2020.

CBC/Radio-Canada will also be a broadcast partner, from 2016 until at least 2023, for the IOC’s new global digital Olympic Channel. The public broadcaster will provide Canadian sports content to support the channel’s focus on the Olympic Movement between Games.

As lead broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada will be working again with its primary Olympic broadcast partner, Bell Media along with Rogers Media.

 

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary, The Nature of Things

The Nature of Things explores the “Curious” world of vitamins and supplements

We’re told that if we stick to Canada’s Food Guide and supplement it with vitamins, we’re getting enough good stuff into our systems to lead healthy lives. But is that truly the case? Self-professed former fat kid turned health nut/filmmaker Bryce Sage plotted to find out.

“The Curious Case of Vitamins and Me,” airing on The Nature of Things this Thursday, is an entertaining journey across North America to find out if what we’re eating and taking is enough … or if things like multivitamins are doing more harm than good. Beginning with evolutionary history, the entertaining Sage—he reminds me of an even geekier Alton Brown—visits the San Francisco Zoo to find out how what primates eat compares to humans. He quickly discovers that we’re not able to manufacture all of the 13 essential vitamins needed to survive (Who else grew up reading “12 essential vitamins!” emblazoned on their cereal boxes?), so they must be found in nature. It’s not long until Sage discovers we’re deficient when it comes to vitamins C, A, D, E and B-9 and digs deeper into the Nutrition Facts box we find on everything nowadays.

Turns out those boxes are cobbled together by a panel of Canadians and Americans. In place since the Second World War, they were originally designed to help soldiers ensure they were getting the recommended daily dose of the 13 essential vitamins to fight. Now they’re used in our everyday lives, a guide to the base amounts of each vitamin to ensure we don’t suffer from vitamin deficiency.

The most fascinating part of “The Curious Case of Vitamins and Me” was watching Sage—armed with a nutritional textbook—head to the grocery store to purchase everything needed to fulfill those daily requirements. He soon learns exactly what those “fortified vitamins” are contained in cereal, and it isn’t good news. Also cool? Sage’s visit to an organic farm, where he discovers modern farming may result in fruits and veggies with less nutritional value than heirloom varieties. Those interested in how vitamins and supplements are made—and where the ingredients are sourced—get their fix when Sage drops by NutraLab Canada.

Far from fear-mongering, “The Curious Case of Vitamins and Me” is a fun, funny and educational guide to making sure you and your family are getting enough out of their diet to be healthy.

“The Curious Case of Vitamins and Me” airs on The Nature of Things, Thursday at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Season 2 of The Other Side returns Oct. 31 to APTN

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From a media release:

Saskatoon’s Angel Entertainment is pleased to announce that the second season of the paranormal investigation television series The Other Side will premiere on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) on Halloween weekend.

SECOND SEASON BROADCAST PREMIERE:
The Other Side – Season II on APTN

Ø  Premieres with back-to-back episodes on Saturday, October 31st at 8:00pm & 8:30pm

Ø  New episodes will air each weekend on Saturdays at 8:00pm & 8:30pm

Ø  (Please check local listings to confirm)

ABOUT THE OTHER SIDE:
The Other Side is a 13-part half-hour documentary series that follows a team of paranormal investigators who, with the guidance of an Aboriginal Elder, seek the truth behind real life hauntings and the most unsettled spirits on the Canadian prairies.

Intuitive Jeff Richards, paranormal investigator Bill Connelly, researcher Priscilla Wolf and Aboriginal Elder and Spirit Guide Tom Charles embark on a paranormal expedition to find out why. The team engages the spirits through a mix of technology, intuition, and Aboriginal spirituality and ceremony, all with the hope of restoring balance between our world and the world where spirits walk.

For each investigation, Jeff uses his abilities to initiate contact and reach out to the spirits, Bill attempts to capture evidence of their existence, and Priscilla digs for the story while seeking cultural guidance from Tom, who attempts to guide the spirits to the other side and restore balance and harmony. The team does their best to answer why the location is suspected of paranormal activity, who the spirit is, and why they’re communicating, while taking steps to enable the unsettled spirit to move on.

The Other Side – Season II is a co-production between Saskatoon’s Angel Entertainment and Toronto-based RedCloud Studios, with producers Bob Crowe, Wally Start and Jennifer Podemski.

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