From James Bawden:

TV’s Deluged By Data Deluges The Senses
I think it was last summer that I suddenly realized my insular little world was fast changing.

There I was walking in my neighborhood one afternoon when I met up with an old friend who said she’d just sent her teenaged daughter to a special camp to break her twitter addiction. Seems the teen was notching 3,000 tweets and twitters a month even as her grades plunged accordingly. Then I saw a nun at St. Michael’s College out on the lawn reading her tablet. And bookstores I’d been frequenting for decades started disappearing.

If only I had been able to see John Freed’s new documentary Deluged By Data at that time I wouldn’t have been in such a funk. Continue reading.

From a media release:

Shaw Media announced today that it has green lit a third season of Food Network Canada’s high-stakes culinary competition series, Chopped Canada. Season three promises to be filled with scrumptious surprises, including a Chopped Canada Teen Tournament. Sixteen of Canada’s best teen chefs will battle it out in the professional kitchen during the five-episode teen series in hopes of winning a $20,000 grand prize. The national casting call is now open for both professional and teen chefs at www.choppedcanadacasting.ca. The submission deadline is March 30, 2015 at 12:00am ET.

Shaw Media will once again partner with Canadian production company, Paperny Entertainment, for the third season premiering in 2016, exclusively on Food Network Canada. The first season of Chopped Canada debuted to record-breaking numbers for Food Network Canada scoring and average audience for a single play of 477,500 (2+)*, making it the highest-premiere in Food Network Canada’s history.

Each episode of Chopped Canada pits four chefs against the clock – and each other – for a chance to win $10,000. Cooking off in head-to-head challenges before a rotating panel of expert judges, the competitors put their skill and ingenuity to the test in an attempt to turn baskets of mystery ingredients into an extraordinary, three-course meal within a limited amount of time. Course by course, the judges chop the chefs from the competition until only one remains.

From a media release:

– Hosted by James Duthie, pilot is first project in Bell Media’s content deal with United Artists Media Group and Highway Entertainment –

– New innovative format gives budding entrepreneurs the chance to make their dreams come true through the help of the consumer crowd –

– Celebrity entrepreneur experts Amber MacArthur and Ron Tite round out cast –

The customer is always right! CTV announced today from Prime Time in Ottawa the start of production on the new one-hour reality series pilot, DREAM FUNDED: LET THE CROWD DECIDE, produced by CTV in association with Entertainment One (eOne), Highway Entertainment, and United Artists Media Group. The pilot is the first project from Bell Media’s partnership with United Artists Media Group (a newly formed joint venture among MGM, Mark Burnett, Roma Downey, and Hearst Entertainment) and Omnicom Media Groups’ Highway Entertainment. Hosted by TSN’s James Duthie, DREAM FUNDED: LET THE CROWD DECIDE offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to earn up to $50,000 by pitching their untested business ideas to a crowd of 100 real consumers. Production begins today in Toronto through March 10.

An original take on crowd-funding, DREAM FUNDED: LET THE CROWD DECIDE, puts all the power in the hands of the crowd, and in the span of one hour, makes dreams come true. In the pilot, seven budding entrepreneurs, known as the “Dreamers”, will introduce their original product to a crowd of 100 curious customers, who each have $250 to support the Dreamer and new product they feel has the most potential. Throughout the show, celebrity entrepreneur experts Amber MacArthur and Ron Tite offer advice and feedback to the Dreamers, helping to elevate their pitches to a higher professional level. At the end of the episode, the Dreamers take home all of the money invested by the crowd, up to $25,000. And to raise the stakes even higher, the Dreamer who has earned the most receives an additional $25,000.

From a media release:

It’s in with the spring and out with the snow as OLN welcomes the season’s hottest new original series, sure to excite all audiences. From master survivalist Les Stroud who returns to OLN with fan-favourite series Survivorman, to prodigy magicians and death-cheating escape artists, to the mind-blowing things the human body can do, OLN has it all. Catch all the action beginning March 3 on OLN.

Tuesday, March 3:

You Can’t Lick Your Elbow: Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT (check local listings), beginning March 3

**Series Premiere**

You Can’t Lick Your Elbow, hosted by future NFL Hall of Fame player Tony Gonzalez, is a guide to the weird, clever, and amazing things you can – and sometimes can’t – do with the human body. On the series premiere of You Can’t Lick Your Elbow, viewers are welcomed to explore their own human body. So watch – and learn – as this episode unlocks the superhuman powers hidden within each of us.

Fail Army: Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT (check local listings), beginning March 3

Fail Army is a brand-new, high-impact, unscripted comedy based on the hugely popular YouTube channel. The 20-episode clip show features the funniest ‘fail’ videos, bloopers, pranks, and all-around entertaining videos in an easy-to-digest half-hour format. Each episode is packed with the same remarkable clip content that has made the FailArmy brand an international sensation with more than one billion total views on YouTube, and over eight million combined followers on social media.

Wednesday, April 8: 

Survivorman: Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT (check local listings), beginning April 8

Canada’s favourite survivalist comes home! Canadian Screen Award winner Les Stroud returns to OLN withSurvivorman, kicking off the show with six special episodes focused on the elusive Bigfoot.

Les Stroud dives deep and puts his reputation on the line to either prove or disprove the existence of a species of man-like primate thought to have become extinct after the last Ice Age: the elusive and mythical Gigantopithecus (e.g., Sasquatch and Bigfoot). On the season premiere, Survivorman Les Stroud’s current quest takes him to the wilderness of Klemtu, an Indian reserve on the coastal fjords of British Columbia, to investigate hundreds of reports of Bigfoot sightings by local residents. Is it myth or fact? One thing is for sure, Klemtu is an environment where large animals could exist indefinitely.

Tuesday, April 14:

Escape or Die!: Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT (check local listings), beginning April 14

**New OLN Original Series**

Dean Gunnarson is hailed as the world’s most daring escape artist, according to Ripley’s Believe It or Not, entertaining audiences around the world with remarkable stunts that cheat death. In the series premiere, Gunnarson is in Shanghai, China to defend his title as the “World’s Most Daring Escape Artist.” The Chinese media have come out in full force to watch him face off against one of the largest wooden rollercoasters in the world.

Illusions of Grandeur: Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT (check local listings), beginning April 14

**New OLN Original Series**

In this new docu-series, up-and-coming street magician Zack Mirza strives to take his magic skills to the next level. On this magic pilgrimage to 12 cities in 12 weeks, Mirza walks in the footsteps of the greats and brings his brand of street magic to cities like Toronto, New York, Austin, Las Vegas, and Detroit. In each city, Mirza focuses on a different style of magic, including mentalism, escapes, and card magic.

The series premiere sees Mirza begin a magic journey across North America in his hometown of Toronto. He performs for Toronto Raptors forward-guard Terrence Ross – blowing his mind with a basketball trick-shot for the ages. Finally, Mirza embarks on the most ambitious card illusion he’s ever attempted.