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Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Crave serves a third season of Canada’s Drag Race

From a media release:

Crave confirmed today that it has ordered a third season of its hit original series, which continues to be the top-performing Canadian title on Crave*. CANADA’S DRAG RACE is available to audiences in Canada in both English and French, and is produced by Blue Ant Studios in association with Crave and World of Wonder.

Canadian drag artists looking to show off their distinct brand of Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent, can now submit their applications at www.crave.ca/canadasdragrace. Applicants must be 19 years of age by November 8, 2021, to apply, and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada.

Additional details about the new season will be announced at a later date.

In association with Crave, Season 3 of CANADA’S DRAG RACE will be produced by Blue Ant Studios. Executive Producers for World of Wonder are Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, and Tom Campbell. RuPaul serves as Executive Producer. Executive Producers for Blue Ant Studios are Michael Kot, Betty Orr, Michelle Mama (SHINE TRUE for VICE, Fuse, and OUTtv; and IN THE MAKING for CBC) and Laura Michalchyshyn. Trevor Boris (BIG BROTHER CANADA for Global TV; and PARADISE HOTEL for FOX) is Executive Producer/Showrunner. 

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Preview: TNoT’s “Nature’s Big Year” explores what happens when a pandemic sends humans inside

Do you recall those first few weeks into the pandemic, when humans were told to stay home and animals were seen more frequently outside? I remember the cellphone videos posted on social media of coyotes trotting down residential streets and sheep galloping around neighbourhoods overseas amid jokes of nature taking the land back.

Were these just a handful of coincidental instances, or something that was really happening while we sat inside, looking out the window? And, was nature better off?

“Nature’s Big Year,” airing Friday as part of The Nature of Things, aims to find out.

Writer, director and producer Christine Nielsen and producer Diana Warmé tell an incredible story spanning 11 locations around the globe—during the pandemic—of nature doing a reboot.

In Bighorn Backcountry, Alberta, wildlife ecologist Jason Fisher and his colleagues were delayed by COVID-19 from accessing trail cameras they’d set up before the world shut down. What they saw in the footage was surprising.

Meanwhile, in Juno Beach, Florida, research manager Sarah Hirsch relates how the lockdown helped loggerhead turtles nest more successfully in an area humans usually trampled around in. And, in Nottinghamshire, UK, wildlife biologist Lauren Moore investigates whether or not a drop in traffic during the pandemic would cause the endangered hedgehog to rebound.

And, not surprisingly (I know this first-hand from observing my feeder), birds were more plentiful during the lockdown. What was a surprise for researchers was that birdsong became louder, more varied, and birds were attracted to areas where there were stricter lockdowns.

Beautifully filmed, “Nature’s Big Year” is the well-told tale of what happens to nature when we interact with it less.

“Nature’s Big Year” airs as part of The Nature of Things, Friday at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Image courtesy of CBC.

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Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Brooke Lynn Hytes presides over a panel of her queers in the Crave Original Series 1 Queen 5 Queers

From a media release:

All tea, no shade! CANADA’S DRAG RACE judge and the Queen of the North, Brooke Lynn Hytes, leads open, honest, and no-holds-barred conversations about all things queer in the new Crave Original series, 1 QUEEN 5 QUEERS. The eight-part series, which is also available to French audiences with subtitles, premieres with two episodes on Thursday, Dec. 9, with subsequent new episodes dropping Thursdays on Crave.

An update to the MTV Canada hit 1 GIRL 5 GAYS, which ran from 2009 to 2014, the new series presents fierce, fiery, and uncensored discussions about sex, relationships, pop culture, challenges facing the LGBTQ2S+ community, and more. Led by Hytes who moderates a panel that represents a variety of sexualities and identities, each half-hour episode of 1 QUEEN 5 QUEERS is focused on a single topic, and reflects the awareness and values of a new generation of viewers.

Segments featured on the series include: “Let’s Have a Kiki,” which invites queer people from around the world to share their opinions about the topics covered on the show; “Secret’s Out,” where a secret about one of the cast members is revealed and the others must guess who it’s about; “Come Again,” where the panelists are invited to discuss pivotal moments in their lives; and “Quick Shooter,” where one cast member must answer as many questions as they can, in one minute.

Some of the panelists joining Hytes on 1 QUEEN 5 QUEERS include: CANADA’S DRAG RACE guest judge and choreographer Hollywood Jade; Award-winning queer comedian Tricia Black; actor and retired professional hockey player Harrison Browne; model, activist, and multidisciplinary performer Ivory Conover; and lifestyle blogger Myles Sexton. Celebrity guests include: fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi; the first transgender woman to be cast in a transgender role on a daytime soap opera (GENERAL HOSPITAL) Cassandra James; and Peabody and American Film Institute Award-winner Our Lady J; a transgender woman whose credits include producer/writer on series such as TRANSPARENT and POSE.

In association with Crave, 1 QUEEN 5 QUEERS is produced by Bell Media Studios and distributed by Bell Media Distribution. Brooke Lynn Hytes serves as Executive Producer and Host.

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Preview: The Nature of Things goes “Inside the Great Vaccine Race” for Season 61 return

Happy Season 61, The Nature of Things! The series, hosted by David Suzuki has always been timely in its nature, covering top-of-mind topics in an interesting, down-to-earth way that even I can understand.

Returning Friday at 9 p.m. on CBC, The Nature of Things is never more relevant, tackling COVID-19 with “Inside the Great Vaccine Race.” As the title suggests, this is an exhaustive peek at the people who worked tirelessly to help develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and continue to do so.

The episode begins with Dr. Alyson Kelvin (above), a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon, who left her family in Halifax for five months to work on a vaccine. While most people, in the early days of the vaccine, expressed curiosity at what was going on in Wuhan, China, Dr. Kelvin knew that—within months—the disease could be worldwide.

“Despite the sacrifices that I made to come here, I would have felt useless being at home,” she says.

Meanwhile, in China, it takes less than two days for the virus to be mapped and identified as related to SARS. And, able to spread without obvious symptoms by the carrier, it can move undetected around the world.

The Nature of Things also visits Cambridge University, Germany’s BioNTech lab and China’s CanSino Biologics as part of its storytelling, outlining what was being done in each location as the sprint to creating vaccines increased.

Made by Infield Fly Productions (who had their own challenges filming a documentary during a pandemic) in association with the CBC, “Inside the Great Vaccine Race” is tough to watch simply because it’s showing a worldwide event we’re still in the midst of. Those that have lost family members or friends to COVID-19 are going to have a particularly difficult experience. And it’s an excellent education into how science can provide a relatively quick solution to a worldwide catastrophe.

“Inside the Great Vaccine Race” kicks off Season 61 of The Nature of Things, Friday at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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Preview: History’s Big Timber hits the water in Season 2

Debts and detonations. That’s a key message delivered in Thursday’s Season 2 return of Big Timber on History.

The reality series once again rides alongside logger Kevin Wenstob and his team of family and staff as they work deep in the heart of Vancouver Island. This time the stakes are even higher than before. Aside from pulling down and shipping timber—and the dangers and drama associated with that—mounting debts at the mill, and possible bankruptcy, cause Kevin and his crew to forge into uncharted waters. Literally.

During the last timber season, Kevin purchased a new claim and heads there … with a little help from his mini ‘dozer and grader. With snow too deep to cut much-needed red cedar, Kevin is on the financial ropes, especially after receiving some mail from the government. As with many documentary series of this type, drama is presented via situations like the aforementioned two problems—usually just before a commercial break and often ad nauseam—and I have to bite my tongue and soldier through the storytelling trope to get to the good stuff.

Thankfully, Big Timber is full of good stuff—like Kevin plotting to use a beloved old boat in the timber process—and I’m looking forward to watching the full season.

Big Timber airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History.

Image courtesy of Corus Studios.

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