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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Chopped Canada launches Season 3 with Chopped Canada Teen Tournament

From a media release:

Food Network Canada today announced premiere dates for season three of its hit, high-stakes culinary competition series, Chopped Canada. Season three kicks off with its new host, Brad Smith, and the world premiere of Chopped Canada Teen Tournament  (5×60) on Saturday, November 28 at 9 pm ET/PT. Chopped Canada’s third season continues with all-new regular episodes premiering January 9 at 9pm ET/PT.

Chopped Canada Teen Tournament  pits 16 of Canada’s best teen chefs against each other, battling it out for a chance to win $20,000 in this five-part special. In each episode, four young chefs face the clock – and each other – putting their skill and ingenuity to the test in an attempt to turn baskets of mystery ingredients into an extraordinary three-course meal. Competitors between the ages of 13 to17 from across Canada square off against each other, with the winner of each episode advancing to the finale. Course by course, the judges decide which teen chef Chopped Canada host Brad Smith will “chop” from the competition until only one remains. The last competitor standing collects the grand prize and will be crowned the first-ever Chopped Canada Teen Grand Champion. Competitor assets available at www.ShawMedia.ca/Media.

This season, celebrity chef, author, and television personality Mark McEwan joins Lynn Crawford, John Higgins, Antonio Park, Anne Yarymowich, Eden Grinshpan, Massimo Capra, Michael Smith, Susur Lee, and Roger Mooking at the rotating judges’ table, critiquing each meal and deciding which Chopped Canada contestants will be chopped.

CHOPPED CANADA TEEN TOURNAMENT PART I: Dukkah-ing It Out (1×60)
Four young chefs pull out all the stops to impress the judges in the first ever Chopped Canada Teen Tournament as they take on the sous vide, a CO2 canister and the anti-griddle.  Tensions run high as a kitchen mishap jeopardizes one teen’s chance of making it to the finale.

CHOPPED CANADA TEEN TOURNAMENT PART II: Lunchbox Letdown (1×60)
It’s back to school in the second competition of the Teen Tournament with four teen chefs testing the classic snack favorite, “Ants on a Log”, in the appetizer round. Things quickly heat up and snap, crackle, and burn in the entrée round.

Season three of Chopped Canada continues with all-new, edge-of-your seat episodes on January 9 at 9PM ET/PT.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Link: Montreal producers living on the edge in CBC-TV series Interrupt This Program

From Bill Brownstein of the Montreal Gazette:

Montreal producers living on the edge in CBC-TV series Interrupt This Program
Mehchi and Fiorito like to live on the edge. They took their probe to cities that have undergone all manner of disasters, be they initiated by war, economics or forces of nature. So, the guys, perhaps taking a cue from the Vice-TV gang, headed off to Beirut, Kyiv, Port-au-Prince, Medellin and Athens, and found both culture and adventure. And, doubtless, spent many a night sleeping with one eye open.

Daring, yes, but also highly illuminating — particularly for viewers who like to limit their sense of wanderlust to the tube. Continue reading. 

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Property Brothers: 100 Episodes & Counting Special Premieres Monday, November 9

From a media release:

W Network’s Property Brothers celebrates its 100th episode (airing November 9 at 9 p.m. ET/PT). Prior to the milestone episode, Drew and Jonathan Scott, will host the brand new special Property Brothers: 100 Episodes & Counting that takes fans on a hilarious ride through their favourite moments from the past 100 episodes of the hit series. The Property Brothers: 100 Episodes & Counting hour-long special airs Monday, November 9 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, followed by the 100th episode of Property Brothers at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Over 100 episodes and 100 dream home renovations, the Canadian duo have become iconic with their wits and skills while renovating or selling a home. Over the past five seasons, Drew and Jonathan have helped couples find, buy and transform extreme fixer-uppers into incredible homes. They’ve put up walls and brought down houses, pulled up floors, completed miracle renovations in weeks, walked red carpets and been included on People Magazine’s Annual Sexiest Man Alive List and HELLO! Canada’s 50 Most Beautiful List. In the special, viewers see how Property Brothers first came about, how an episode is put together, as well as all-time favourite bits from the show, including the evolution of Drew and Jonathan’s hair styles.

Property Brothers is produced by Cineflix (Property Brothers 5) Inc. in association with W Network. Gerard Barry is among the Executive Producers for Cineflix. For more information on these series, please visit wnetwork.com/propertybrothers.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Link: Polar Bear Town is must-see TV

From Jim Bawden:

Polar Bear Town is must-see TV
As I meander around Toronto these days people are always asking me are there any new must see Canadian TV series.

I’m usually stymied by the request but after watching the new series Polar Bear Town have I got a winner for them. You can see for yourself –the next new episode premieres on OLN Tuesday night at 9. Got that? Continue reading. 

 

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Banger Films returns to TV with excellent Rock Icons

Are you ready to rock? Four years after Banger Films brought the history of metal music to television with Metal Evolution, the boys are back with Rock Icons.

Debuting Sunday on HBO Canada (after a first window broadcast on VH1), Rock Icons celebrates the men and ladies who have built incredible careers in the music industry. Beginning this week with a focus on Rush frontman Geddy Lee, upcoming instalments boast Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, Ted Nugent, Heart’s Ann Wilson, Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine, Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx, Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, Daryl Hall, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott and Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan.

“Picking these icons was really a collaboration between ourselves and VH1,” says Sam Dunn, who co-directed the series with Scot McFadyen. “We had our favourites and they had theirs and we created a list where we felt there were stories to tell and they felt there was an audience for.” Dunn and McFadyen’s Banger Films have produced a must-watch list of feature documentaries on the subject of rock and metal music, from Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey to Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, Iron Maiden: Flight 666 and Super Duper Alice Cooper, building trust within the music community. That trust gave them access to folks like Wilson, who is notoriously shy when it comes to granting interviews.

Even well-versed fans of bands like Rush and Mötley Crüe will be surprised by what the Banger crew uncover; Lee’s interest in music was inspired by Roy Orbison and Sixx is the reason the glam rockers existed in the first place.

“The story of Nikki Sixx has always been the same, the sex, the drugs and the rock and roll,” Dunn says. “We didn’t want to do that. We wanted to look at who this person was. We came up with the title The Architect, because he really is the architect behind Mötley Crüe. He guided and shaped that band and is a really smart guy, and we felt that was a more interesting story than talking about the Sunset Strip again.”

Dunn acknowledges the 10-part first season barely scratches the surface on all of the icons they’d love to celebrate, but at this point there’s no Season 2 planned. Not that he and the Banger Films team are sitting around. Their latest feature documentary, Satan Lives, is available on iTunes and On Demand across Canada now, and a two-part doc on the history of hip-hop called The Message: Hip-Hop Evolution is on the way. The company also launched a kids’ programming division called B Minors; Gaming Show (In My Parents Garage) currently airs on CHRGD.

When I mention the possibility of a documentary celebrating the Scorpions, Dunn doesn’t miss a beat.

“Someone needs to make that film,” he says. “They’re the biggest musical act to come out of Germany. They’re the biggest metal band to come out of North America, the U.K. and the English-speaking world. Someone’s gotta do it and we’d love to do it. I better call some German broadcasters.”

Rock Icons airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. ET/MT on HBO Canada.

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