Everything about Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary, eh?

New tonight: Strip The City, Marketplace, The Fifth Estate, Match Game

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Strip the City, Discovery World – “Harbor City – Sydney”
Sydney is home to a fifth Australia’s entire population and is trapped between the Blue Mountains and the ocean, sitting on the driest inhabited continent on Earth, and surrounding one the planet’s largest natural harbours. This episode uncovers what is inside Sydney’s buildings and beneath its streets that allow the city to function – from the concealed contours of the harbour that allow super-sized ships to sail into the heart of the city, to the underground caverns that store its water.

Marketplace, CBC – “The Dirt on Hotels, Part 2”
We test how well chains are maintaining their hotels. After revealing just how unsanitary Canadian hotels are, discover what the companies could be doing to clean up their act and protect their guests, and what you can do to protect yourself.

The Fifth Estate, CBC – “Left For Dead”
In Mark Kelley’s first episode with the fifth estate, one of the greatest survival stories never told. Two friends depart on the adventure of a lifetime—Ohio to Sweden, in a small plane. But that adventure would soon become a struggle between life and death. The engines quit, and the plane crashes into the icy waters of Canada’s North, just south of Baffin Island, on a cold, dark night. Rescue planes and a helicopter circle overhead, but find nothing, no trace of the two men clinging for life on drifting sea ice, deep in polar bear hunting grounds.

Match Game, Comedy
Join the party with special guests D. L. Hughley (D.L. HUGHLEY BREAKS THE NEWS), Steve Smith (THE RED GREEN SHOW), Sabrina Jalees (COMEDY NOW!), and Laura Cilevitz (VIDEO ON TRIAL).

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Burger Wars, Taco Wars and Pizza Wars coming to CMT

From a media release:

PYRAMID PRODUCTIONS GETS COOKING ON NEW CULINARY SMACKDOWN SERIES FOR CMT (CANADA)

Who has the best fast food in your town? Time to find out. Working with Calgary’s Pyramid Productions, CMT (Canada) has commissioned three new partner series — Burger Wars, Taco Wars and Pizza Wars. Slated to air on the network in 2013, the series touches down in Vancouver, Toronto, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, Calgary and Las Vegas and features five Burger Wars episodes, five Taco Wars episodes and four Pizza Wars episodes.

In each episode, host Cris Nannarone, a veteran road warrior and standup comedian, scours restaurants, diners, food trucks and everything in between, to find the best burger, pizza or taco. It’s a quest to find the top three contenders who will ultimately go to battle. Nannarone learns their trade secrets and discovers if their dish has what it takes to win the war.

“It’s a dream job,” says Cris Nannarone. “I mean, think about it. I get to eat my way across the continent.”

Filming of the series starts in Los Angeles this December, where Cris will begin with a search for the best burger in Hollywood.

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New tonight: Flashpoint, The Liquidator, The Nature of Things, Doc Zone, Match Game


Flashpoint, CTV – “Lawmen”
Parker’s (Enrico Colantoni) son Dean (Jack Knight, A Heartland Christmas), and Ed’s (Hugh Dillon) son Clark (Tyler Stentiford, DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION) join Team One in a ride along. But, when a shootout at a drug den reveals a conspiracy among local cops to clean up the neighbourhood, the boys are exposed to the brutal realities of their father’s jobs, and to the true cost of being a police officer.

The Liquidator, OLN – “Has the Master Lost his Mojo?”
Jeff purchases a massive load of dubious merchandise—including pallets of foam Easter eggs and Halloween pumpkins. Meanwhile, a planned auction of high-end goods teeters on the brink of disaster.

The Nature of Things, CBC – “Planet Hunters”
For millennia humans studying the stars had no idea if there were any other planets in the universe, let alone ones similar enough to ours to sustain life. We may be very close to finding out – and few people seem aware of it.

Doc Zone, CBC – “Faking The Grade”
We all piously talk about the importance of honesty in life, but a new one-hour TV documentary, FAKING THE GRADE: The Shocking Truth About Classroom Cheating, airing on CBC Television Doc Zone Thursday, November 15 at 9 pm (9:30 NT), reveals that, when it comes to school, we’re increasingly a nation of cheaters. As various universities mark Academic Integrity Week, FAKING THE GRADE asks why and how this epidemic of cheating has happened? Is it the fault of pressure to get a job in a hyper-competitive market? Are “boomer” parents with relaxed moral compasses to blame? Or is it the trickle-down effect of a world full of headlines about people in sports, business, and politics – the Lance Armstrongs, Bernie Madoffs, Conrad Blacks, Garth Drabinskys and many, many others – enriching themselves by cheating? Is the lesson they offer the rest of us that cheating is acceptable – just don’t get caught!

Match Game, Comedy
Guest panellists Caroline Rhea (SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH), Scott Thompson (KIDS IN THE HALL), Paul Lemieux (MTV LIVE), and Emily Hampshire (Cosmopolis) keep the crowd laughing.

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Real Family Vacations casting call

From a media release:

CASTING BEGINS ON EXCLUSIVE NEW TRAVEL+ESCAPE SERIES REAL FAMILY VACATIONS

  • Series Premieres Winter 2013

Travel+Escape and Buck Productions announce the start of production and casting for the exclusive new travel series Real Family Vacations (working title). The 13-episode series will premiere in the winter of 2013.

Travelling with kids is always an adventure, and Real Family Vacations is about chronicling these real families, on real trips with real life moments. Families will be chosen to chronicle their adventure with cameras given to them by Buck Productions. For eligibility and more information go to www.RealFamilyVacationscasting.com.

“People love to chronicle their trips,” said Marcia Martin, SVP Original Content, Blue Ant Media. “But this isn’t just family photos in front of monuments and on sunny beaches – its the uncut version of what really happens on family vacations when the camera keeps rolling.”

“Real Family Vacations puts the content in the hands of the subjects, literally,” said Sean Buckley, Owner, Buck Productions. “We created this unique series format which allows the process to be just as interesting as the product, and we think audiences are going to love it.”

Real Family Vacations is produced by Buck Productions. The creative team includes Executive Producer Sean Buckely; Supervising Producer Jim Kiriakakis. Series Producer and Creative Producer are Josh Tizel and Dave Lembke, respectively.

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Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan premieres January 21 on OLN

From a media release:

OLN Likes to do Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan on New Original Travel-Adventure Series, Beginning Jan. 21

  • Wild Things with Dominican Monaghan follows the actor as he travels the planet in search of the rarest and most spectacular species in the world
  • Produced by Cream Productions, the eight episode, one-hour series was filmed across four continents and eight countries

From Lord of the Rings to Wild Things, internationally renowned actor Dominic Monaghan (Lost) takes viewers on an exhilarating search for some of the most frightening insects and reptiles on the planet. Premiering Monday, Jan. 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT (check local listings) on OLN, Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan invites viewers along an intimate, action packed journey as Monaghan struggles to hunt down and get up close and personal with some of the most dangerous and elusive creatures known to man.

Travelling to four continents and eight countries across the globe, Monaghan encounters a lively mix of locals, quirky experts, and a host of creatures that inhabit these strange and wonderfully wild places. From pursuing a million swarming army ants in the rainforests of Ecuador, to infiltrating the “black market” insect trade in Cameroon, to facing off with a deadly scorpion in the arid deserts of Namibia, Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan reminds viewers that “getting there” is the real adventure.

In the premiere episode, Monaghan travels from the snake-infested rice paddies of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta to a crocodile filled lake in search of the venomous Giant Water Bug. This hideous underwater creature is the size of a man’s hand and has an excruciatingly painful bite that literally liquefies flesh.

Monaghan is best known for his role as Meriadoc ‘Merry’ Brandybuck in the movie adaptations of Lord of the Rings and as Charlie Pace in the television series Lost. A true nature lover, Monaghan’s love for insects and reptiles developed during his childhood and remains to this day.

Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan is an OLN, BBC AMERICA, and Channel Five original production, produced by Cream Productions and Wildfire Television. Executive Producers are Dave Brady and Jenn Kuzmyk. Claire Freeland is Director of Original Programming, Rogers Media Television and Marni Goldman is Production Executive for Rogers Original Programming.

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