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CBC’s Crash Gallery Season 2 casting now open

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From a media release:

CASTING CALL: We are looking for creative, confident, energetic artists looking to showcase their skills and talent on national TV!

Lark Productions is now casting Canadian artists for Season 2 for the groundbreaking CBC series – Crash Gallery.

We are looking for artists from a wide variety of mediums from painters, sculptors and mixed media artists to tattoo, graffiti, carving, street art, animators, illustrators, all creative mediums apply.

We want to hear from you if:

• You want an opportunity to showcase your talent on a televised, national stage
• You have advanced art skills (the ability to draw & sketch is a must)
• You are enthusiastic to take on an art challenge both within & outside your specialized medium
• You are comfortable on camera and have an outgoing personality
• You aren’t afraid to get a little competitive!

Casting is currently open, so apply today!

Please send your name, photo, artists bio, contact information and 2-3 photo samples of your artistic work to casting@larkproductions.ca. Please include links to any relevant pages or media articles.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Link: Love It Or List It sued by North Carolina couple for leaving their home ‘irreparably damaged’

From Sadaf Ahsan of The National Post:

Love It Or List It sued by North Carolina couple for leaving their home ‘irreparably damaged’
Love it Or List It or lawsuit are the options today for the HGTV home renovation series that is finding itself in the middle of a legal battle with a North Carolina couple who claim the show left their house in shambles after a supposed makeover. Continue reading. 

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

W Network’s Game of Homes returns for drama-filled Season 2

The home renovation show with the best twist on a TV title ever returns with one of the biggest prizes in Canadian TV. Season 2 of Game of Homes is back Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on W Network with resident judges Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan, host Dave Salmoni and four pairs of two looking to score one heck of a grand prize: a house, furniture inside the house and a plot of land to put it on.

Where Season 1 had the backdrop of Vancouver, the sophomore go-round is based just outside of Toronto, and eight weeks of toil turns into triumph for two people. Will it be Kim and Harry, who want to win the house for financial freedom and a chance to spend more time with their kids? Maybe best friends Domenic and Michael, hoping to move out of their parents’ home. There is also engaged couple Courtney and Tyler; and mother and son duo Shelley and Alex, looking to win the house to secure financial stability for Alex’s future. Regardless of who wins, the road is a bumpy one.

“When things happen and they realize, ‘Holy shit, I could win a house,’ that’s one reality,” says Salmoni during a break in filming. “Then there’s the reality of the first time they don’t enjoy being part of a TV show. ‘I’m having a first AD scream at me?’ ‘I have to do that again?’ There are a lot of things you don’t consider when you sign on to do a design show.” Salmoni, an animal trainer and host of such nature series as Rogue Nature and Into the Pride and heading up Mark Burnett’s adventure series Expedition Impossible, dispenses tough love to the competitors, who are challenged to renovate a room at a time in the run-down abodes they’ve chosen. At the end of each episode, McAllister, Ryan, a guest judge weigh in on whose room looks the best.

“Colin and I are very practical and there can only be one winner,” Ryan says. “But to get there, there is a big emotional journey. We have connected with the contestants, but we have to keep that barrier alive where we can be critical without offending.”

“I want them all to win, but I’m there for the rules,” Salmoni explains. “If you tell me you’re tired? Tough, this is what you signed on for. If you received some comments from the judges that you didn’t like? Tough, do better next time.” There’s a lot of that attitude—both from the judges and contestants—in Episode 1. The dazzle of being part of a television show quickly fades when hours stretch into days, ingenious ideas crumble and tempers flare. McAllister, Ryan and guest judge Todd Talbot pull no punches in their criticisms of the living room renovations and leads to bruised egos.

“The stress of it is expected for a show like this,” Salmoni says. “What I didn’t expect was the weather. It’s getting cold and there’s no heat in the houses. They’ve been struggling.” Luckily, the grand prize is worth it.

Game of Homes airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on W Network.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Paranormal Survivor returns with new terrifying tales

When it comes to believing in ghosts and the supernatural, I lean towards the side of skeptic, though I’ve had experiences I can’t explain. Orbs captured in a photo floating between my stepsons, a general sense of unease during a week-long stay at a Pelee Island cottage. I love watching paranormal investigators obtain odd things with audio and video equipment as they dash around haunted locations. And while those blips and static-choked voices are certainly interesting, the stories told by those directly affected by the paranormal can be truly scary.

That’s certainly the case of Paranormal Survivor, returning for a second season Friday night on Travel + Escape. Broadcast during the channel’s free preview, Our House Media’s project sits down with the real people who have been at the wrong end of spooky experiences and re-enacts them for viewers.

“We’ve always be interested in the documentary with dramatization genre,” says OHM president Joe Houlihan. “You have people telling true stories that are dramatized. There is an audience that’s really interested in the paranormal, from true believers to skeptics. It’s a scenario where, if you find the right stories, the first-hand accounts are utterly compelling.” That’s certainly the case of the folks producers spoke to for Paranormal Survivor. In Friday’s return episode, hobby farm owner Al recounts how the feeling of dread he felt arriving home every night evolved into being bear-hugged by an unseen force; Karen of Fenelon Falls, Ont., describes a harrowing history of sexual abuse at the hands of an unseen assailant; and Kristen tearfully recalls her dead aunt chasing her.

Far from being salacious, Paranormal Survivor simply presents the victims’ stories, corroborated by the investigators who took on their cases and observed something strange going on. Everyone believes something happened to these people, but exactly what is up for discussion. Houlihan explains victims told their tales, writers put together the scripts and actors were cast to re-create those terrible moments; the result is truly chilling footage you should watch with the lights on.

Where does Houlihan fall on the spirit scale? He’s a skeptic too, though he admits to an encounter of his own.

“I lived in a 100-year-old house in the U.K. and I saw an apparition of an old lady,” he recalls with a laugh. “It wasn’t anything scary or threatening, but it was something where you say, ‘OK, that was weird.’ In my heart of hearts, I know what I saw.”

Paranormal Survivor airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on T+E. The network is currently in a free preview.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Discovery’s Original Canadian Production MIGHTY SHIPS Shoves Off for Ninth Season, May 1

From a media release:

Discovery’s original Canadian series MIGHTY SHIPS returns for a dramatic ninth season, airing Sundays at 7 p.m. ET beginning May 1. Produced by Discovery’s in-house production unit, Exploration Production Inc. (EPI), and seen in more than 150 countries around the world, the long-running Canadian series sets sail on a new high-stakes voyage, taking viewers on the journey and below the surface to explore places and technologies that are usually off-limits to land lovers.

From the largest hospital ship on the planet to a longline fishing vessel to an expedition cruise ship, the six-episode season gives unprecedented see-all, hear-all access to everything above and below deck, following the captains, engineers, and able seamen into the heart of the most sophisticated ships ever built.

Discovery also announced today that MIGHTY SHIPS’ sister series, MIGHTY CRUISE SHIPS, has embarked on the production of its second season, taking viewers to exotic ports in the Mediterranean, old world cities like Rome, Athens, Istanbul, and Barcelona; cruising the rugged coastlines of Norway and Scotland; and visiting the Caribbean. Featuring the largest cruise ships at sea, MIGHTY CRUISE SHIPS will debut in Spring 2017.

Episode highlights from MIGHTY SHIPS – Season 9 include:

“North Sea Giant”
Sunday, May 1 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT
With a specialized crane system and five propellers to counter heavy seas, North Sea Giant can perform powerful and precise lifts in seas as high as 4.5 metres – four times the capability of other such vessels. On this voyage, she’s out to lift and install the final massive module of the world’s first subsea gas compression station nearly 300 metres underwater. But when strong winds and currents threaten the delicate operation, her team of underwater robots must come to the rescue before the module crashes the entire project!

“Tonsberg”
Sunday, May 8 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT
Tonsberg carries anything that can be rolled up her ramp: not just automobiles and bulldozers, but also heavy, awkward-sized cargo such as cranes, subway trains, or yachts. In some of the busiest ro-ro ports in Europe, Tonsberg’s crew rushes to overcome the obstacles that could delay her. Sailing across the Atlantic, two storms threaten to cross her path as the crew keeps a sharp eye on the lashings that hold the cargo in place.

“USNS Comfort”
Sunday, May 15 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT
Almost three football fields long, the USNS Comfort is second in size only to U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. She is the largest hospital ship on the planet, with up to 1,200 crew, 12 operating rooms, 1,000 beds, and an impressive array of medical equipment. MIGHTY SHIPS joins the USNS Comfort midway through “Operation Continuing Promise” – a six-month mission to provide humanitarian aid to 11 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. Sailing to the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica, Comfort’s crew sets out to aid 10,000 patients in just nine days.

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