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The Liquidator comes to an end on OLN

It’s the end of the road for The Liquidator on OLN. After 91 episodes and five seasons, series star Jeff Schwarz made the announcement via Facebook on Thursday.

“I want to be clear it’s been great filming The Liquidator and based on the success of the show and its ratings, I would have continued,” he wrote. “We hit 163 countries, and had top ratings in Canada, it’s been a pleasure being on OLN. The decision to not renew the show has really nothing to do with them, new regulations with programming is ONE of the main reasons the show is no longer being filmed.” The new regulations Schwarz mentions no doubt refers to the CRTC’s ruling regarding skinny basic and à la carte cable offerings, and suggests OLN won’t exist once consumers are given the power to buy only the channels they want to watch.

“I can assure you that we are working on more TV, and it should happen with any network we look forward in continuing filming,” Schwarz continued in his post. “We did a total of 91 episodes or five seasons with the help of Anaïd Productions. This on any standard was a huge achievement on any level! I want to personally thank all my fans with their support and encouragement and should an opportunity arise and it makes sense we will be back on TV.”

The Liquidator docu-drama series followed the Vancouver-based Schwarz—owner of Direct Liquidation—as he bought up discarded or unwanted merchandise and then sold out of his 30,000 square-foot warehouse. The series won a 2014 Leo Award for Best Screenwriting in a Lifestyle/Information Series and another in 2015 for Best Directing in a Lifestyle/Information Series.

Fans of The Liquidator have gone online and created a petition for folks to sign in a bid to get the series back on the air.

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Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Andrew Younghusband returns with Discovery’s Canada’s Worst Driver and Tougher Than It Looks?

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From a media release:

Notable host, creative producer, and writer, Andrew Younghusband is taking over primetime television Monday nights! Discovery, Canada’s most-watched entertainment specialty network, continues rolling out its biggest-ever fall lineup with the season premiere of CANADA’S WORST DRIVER, airing Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT followed by the network’s newest original Canadian series, TOUGHER THAN IT LOOKS? at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT, beginning Oct. 24.

Discovery introduces TOUGHER THAN IT LOOKS? starring Younghusband as he delves into the toughest jobs, attempts to tackle terrifying heights, extreme sports, small spaces, and strange hobbies. Shot in ultra-vivid 4K UHD, each 30-minute episode finds Younghusband on a mission to tackle wildly different experiences with minimal training, including working as a window cleaner on a dauntingly high skyscraper, wing walking on a bi-plane in mid-air, barefoot water skiing, setting world records, and even racing lawnmowers. Nothing is too scary – or obscure – for Younghusband to try … at least once.

But first, Younghusband is back at the Driver Rehabilitation Centre in Dunnville, Ont., for CANADA’S WORST DRIVER as eight disastrous Canadian drivers take on various challenges behind the wheel in Season 12. CANADA’S WORST DRIVER was Discovery’s most-watched series last season and ranked as the #1 Canadian series on entertainment specialty television among the key adult demos (A25-54 and A18-49). The series also saw a double-digit audience growth among the A25-54 (+15%) and A18-49 (+18%) demos, when compared to its previous season.

This year’s reckless and irresponsible drivers hail from Winnipeg, Edmonton, Hamilton, Ont., Kitchener, Ont., and beyond. Each nominated by a friend or family member, these truly terrible drivers are put through driving challenges in a controlled environment and evaluated by a panel of driving experts: CP24’s Cam Woolley, traffic expert and former OPP sergeant; Philippe Létourneau, a professional high-performance driving instructor; expert driving instructor Tim Danter; and registered psychotherapist Shyamala Kiru.

A first for CANADA’S WORST DRIVER this season, Younghusband examines and compares Canadian driving laws with the customs and driving cultures of other countries, all while administering the series’ trademark tried-and-tested challenges designed to push this year’s driver participants to their limits. Week by week, one driver graduates from the training centre, and merges back on to the open road with their head held high.

The season finale sees the remaining three drivers face the last challenge before one finalist is ultimately named this year’s “Worst Driver”. Viewers can catch up on all previous season finales of CANADA’S WORST DRIVER online now at Discovery.ca. Previous seasons of CANADA’S WORST DRIVER are streaming now on Discovery GO and CraveTV™.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Links: CBC’s Road to Mercy on Firsthand

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Road to Mercy is a rumination on assisted death
Road to Mercy (CBC, 9 p.m. Thursday, on FirstHand) is presented as a film that “documents Canada’s journey into the furthest ethical frontier – a place where doctors are allowed to take a life and where society must decide on the circumstances under which they can.”

But it is really a rumination on the issue, rather than a chronicle of what is happening. As such, it is very powerful, provocative and philosophical. Continue reading.

From Sheryl Ubelacker of The Canadian Press:

Link: CBC’s Road to Mercy explores ethical frontiers of doctor-assisted death
Earlier this year, Canadians were given the legal right to seek a doctor-assisted death, but restrictions in the law governing who can access the act and under what circumstances have continued to fuel debate about this still-contentious issue.

Road to Mercy, a one-hour documentary airing Thursday on CBC-TV, explores the ethical questions surrounding physician-aided dying through the eyes of an Edmonton man with ALS, a young Belgium woman struggling with mental illness, and their families and doctors. Continue reading.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Link: Road To Mercy: Must-See TV

From Jim Bawden:

Link: Road To Mercy: Must-See TV
I have to admit I kept postponing watching my screener of the new CBC-TV documentary Road To Mercy. The subject is mercy killing and I’d lost a dear friend last year (journalist Eric McGuinness) who fought two bouts of colon cancer and then was told it had spread to his pancreas.

After enduring great pain for months he arranged a termination in Switzerland because under Canadian law any sort of assisted death was illegal. Continue reading.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Firsthand delves into doctor-assisted death with “Road to Mercy”

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Firsthand‘s first documentary of the 2016-17 broadcast season couldn’t be more timely. Weeks after the doctor-assisted death of Shoeless Joe author W.P. Kinsella, “Road to Mercy” treads the controversial topic of doctors taking the lives of patients and the circumstances where they are allowed to do it.

Airing Thursday at 9 p.m. on CBC, Toronto-based filmmaker Nadine Pequeneza’s project focuses on the window between February 2015 and June 2016, after the Supreme Court ruling and before Canada’s first law on medical assistance in dying (MAID). But just because the law was passed doesn’t mean it’s clear cut and that’s what’s discussed in “Road to Mercy.” Which patients should be allowed to die (Just those who are terminally ill? What about car accident victims?) and when (Four months before they’re expected to die? Six?) are just two bullet points up for discussion. While those guidelines are worked out, the patients waiting to die agree on one thing: they want control over how they die and want to do it with dignity.

Among those who provide context in “Road to Mercy” are Maureen Taylor, an advocate for the right to die with dignity and the provincially appointed co-chair of the Ontario Advisory Panel On Physician-Assisted Dying; John Tuckwell, diagnosed with ALS in 2012 and planning his death with the help of his sister and doctor; Amy De Schutter, a 29-year-old fighting mental illness; and Quebec’s Dr. Louis Roy, who advises his ill patient Danielle Lacroix in her final days. (In Quebec, the province pre-empted the Supreme Court, passing end-of-life-care legislation in 2014, which came into effect December 2015. Unlike the Supreme Court decision, the Quebec legislation limits MAID to terminal patients.)

After watching a few minutes of John Tuckwell’s deterioration—he’s still mobile, but needs help standing and can no longer talk—it seems a no-brainer he is allowed to pull the plug. But his physician, Dr. Wendy Johnston, loathes to do it because she doesn’t want that to be an option for her patients. Maureen Taylor acknowledges it’s not all cut-and-dried either; will some segments of society, as a result of the guidelines, be deemed “expendable”?

“Road to Mercy” certainly isn’t a feel-good documentary, but it will cause viewers to pause—if they haven’t already—and consider not only where they stand on the subject of doctor-assisted death but if they’d consider it an option.

Firsthand airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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