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TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Amazing Race Canada, Awards, Big Brother Canada, Dragons' Den, Masterchef Canada, Motive, Murdoch Mysteries, Ratings, Rookie Blue, Saving Hope, The Listener

Golden Screen Awards recognize most-watched TV

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From a media release:

Academy Announces First-ever Golden Screen Awards, Recognizing Canada’s Most-Watched TV Series

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television announces the creation of two new television awards: the Golden Screen Award for the most-watched Canadian Drama/Comedy Series and one for the country’s highest-rated Reality Series.

The Golden Screen Award for TV Drama / Comedy and the Golden Screen Award for TV Reality Show are Academy Special Awards which will be presented alongside the Golden Screen Award for Feature Film during the LIVE broadcast of the Canadian Screen Awards on CBC, March 1, 8pm nationwide (8:30 NT).

Based on data provided by Numeris (BBM Canada), these are the Top-Rated 5 programs in each genre for the 2013-2014 broadcast year. *

Golden Screen Award for TV Drama / Comedy Finalists
(in alpha order):

THE LISTENER | CTV (Bell Media) (Shaftesbury)
Using his intuitive powers and enhanced policing skills, telepath Toby Logan (Craig Olejnik) faces new professional and personal challenges as he helps solve crimes with the Integrated Investigative Bureau (IIB).

MOTIVE | CTV (Bell Media) (Foundation Features and Lark Productions)
Each episode of MOTIVE begins by revealing not only the victim, but the killer as well. It’s not a “whodunit,” it’s a “whydunit,”a question faced by spirited female Vancouver homicide detective Angie Flynn as she begins to piece together the clues from the crime.

MURDOCH MYSTERIES | CBC (CBC) (Shaftesbury)
Set in Toronto at the dawn of the 20th century during the age of invention, Murdoch Mysteries is a one-hour drama centred on Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson), the methodical and dashing detective who pioneers innovative forensic techniques to solve gruesome murders.

ROOKIE BLUE | Global (Shaw Media) (Entertainment One Television International)
After the bullet wounds and trauma of last season, life at 15 Division goes on for young cops, Andy, Sam. Chloe and Nick. Andy and Sam reunite and she’s tasked with training a challenging new rookie, under the watchful eye of a tough inspector.

SAVING HOPE | CTV (Bell Media) (ICF Films and Entertainment One)
Pulse-pounding surgeries, adrenaline-fueled breakthroughs and sultry romances force the doctors of Hope Zion to navigate unchartered waters. Alex faces doubts over her abilities as a surgeon and the men in her life. Charlie discovers mind-challenging medical miracles and Joel battles his inner demons as he treats patients on the streets.

Golden Screen Award for TV Reality Show Finalists
(in alpha order):

THE AMAZING RACE CANADA | CTV (Bell Media) (Insight Production Company Ltd.)
THE AMAZING RACE CANADA is a skills-based competition show in which two-person teams, who have a pre-existing personal relationship, race against other teams. Competitors strive to arrive first at “pit stops” at the end of each leg. The first team to the final pit stop wins the grand prize.

BATTLE OF THE BLADES | CBC (CBC) (Insight Production Company Ltd.)
Battle of the Blades is an original Canadian series that pairs NHL hockey greats with elite female figure skaters for an elimination style weekly competition. The pairs compete in figure skating performances judged by an expert panel that offer comments and marks for each performance. These marks are combined with the television audience votes to determine the winner.

BIG BROTHER CANADA | Slice (Shaw Media) (Insight Production Company Ltd.)
BIG BROTHER CANADA follows a group of strangers who live together in a house that records their every move, 24 hours a day. Each week they compete in challenges and one by one, vote each other out. Last house guest that remains wins the grand prize as voted by a jury.

DRAGON’S DEN | CBC (CBC) (CBC)
Launching a business is no small task. No matter how big an idea you think you have, it still takes a lot of work and a ton of cash. Enter the Dragons’ Den, where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business concepts and products to a panel of Canadian business moguls who have the cash and the know-how to make it happen.

MASTERCHEF CANADA | CTV (Bell Media) (Proper Television)
Canada’s Top 50 home cooks begin their quest to become the first ever MASTERCHEF CANADA and win a $100,000.00 prize. The home cooks will have to show off their cooking skills in intense culinary challenges in order to impress the judges Michael Bonacini, Claudio Aprile, and Alvin Leung.

*Audience estimates provided by Numeris based on a list of all Canadian television programming provided by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Analysis based on Total Canada, P2+, Average Minute Audience during the period of August 26, 2013-August 31, 2014, original airings (“live plus 7 days”) with 50% or more of the airings occurring during the 2013-14 broadcast season.

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Schitt's Creek

Link: Eugene and Dan Levy co-star on new CBC comedy, Schitt’s Creek

From Todd Aalgaard of Post City Toronto:

Meeting Eugene Levy for the first time, the fact that you’re in the presence of one of the most brilliant comedic minds in entertainment history — to say nothing of Canadian entertainment, for that matter — doesn’t initially register. There’s the sudden welling up of hero-worship, then shortly thereafter, the realization that this is the same guy who redefined sketch comedy as a member of Second City and one of the stars of SCTV followed by his work in the acclaimed mockumentaries of filmmaker Christopher Guest. Continue reading.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

W Network gives away a house in Game of Homes

WNetwork_Logo

From a media release:

This March, Corus Entertainment presents the premiere of W Network’s biggest competition series yet, Game of Homes (8X60). Hosted by Emmy® nominated actor Cameron Mathison (All My Children, 54), the Vancouver-based series follows four teams of two amateur home renovators as they compete for the prize of a lifetime – a house and a plot of land to put it on. Produced by Great Pacific Media in association with W Network, Game of Homes premieres Tuesday, March 17 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on W Network.

In Game of Homes, host Cameron Mathison guides the teams as they compete for the ultimate prize. The teams save rundown houses that are marked to be torn down and revive them into their dream homes, room-by-room. These condemned houses slated for the wrecking ball, are uprooted and transported by truck and barge to downtown Vancouver. Here in public view teams will work side by side, around the clock, to completely transform these dumps into show homes while living in them. They will battle small budgets, tight deadlines cramped quarters and each other for a chance to win a home and change their lives forever.

The action-packed series pits each team’s skill, ingenuity and teamwork against each other. Every week, two expert judges, Cheryl Torrenueva (Home to Go, Restaurant Makeover) and Jeremy MacPherson (The Re-Inventors) assess the design and workmanship of each team’s room transformation. They will be joined by celebrity guest judges including: Jillian Harris and Todd Talbot from W Network’s Love It or List It Vancouver;Drew and Jonathan Scott from W Network’s Property Brothers; CMT’s Kortney and Dave Wilson; Colin and Justin (Colin and Justin’s Home Heist, I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here); Kelly Deck (Take it Outside); and Dee Dee Eustace (Love By Design, Real Designing Women). In the grand finale, the public will also cast their vote on which team has achieved the most spectacular home renovation.

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Book of Negroes, Dragons' Den, Saving Hope, Young Drunk Punk

Tonight: Saving Hope, Young Drunk Punk, Dragons’ Den, The Book of Negroes

Saving Hope, CTV – “A Simple Plan”
Dr. Alex Reid (Erica Durance) finds herself under the thumb of her overprotective birth partner – leading her to wonder what kind of plans are truly worth making. When a patient comes in two days before he’s set to go to prison, Alex and Dr. Charlie Harris (Michael Shanks) must sift through his many secrets to find out the truth about what really happened to him to help save his life. Dr. Maggie Lin (Julia Taylor Ross) and Dr. Zach Miller (Ben Ayres) treat a couple on their way to see the Northern Lights, when a surprise diagnosis changes their futures forever – leading Zach to open up to Maggie about his own family secrets. Dr. Joel Goran (Daniel Gillies) enlists Dr. Shahir Hamza’s (Huse Madhavji) help to get a young bride ready to walk down the aisle. Charlie finds a spirit loitering in the halls, and when he discovers why, he finds himself facing a very emotional flash from his past. ETALK Anchor Ben Mulroney makes a guest appearance on this episode.

Young Drunk Punk, City – “The Van”
Ian (Tim Carlson) and Shinky (Atticus Mitchell) turn an old van into the coolest party wagon in town, but when the van threatens their friendship, the guys have to decide if they’d rather be friends with each other, or with the van. Meanwhile, Belinda (Allie Macdonald) and Lloyd (Bruce McCulloch) team up for some father-daughter crime fighting, and Helen (Tracy Ryan) takes up jogging – only to find that she’s exercising her eyes as much as her legs.

Dragons’ Den, CBC
One entrepreneur thinks he has the right skills to be an industry ringleader; a Dragon gets burned by a flashy product causing the other Dragons to breathe fire; and one product’s outlawed origins rear an ethical motive. Plus, a green product has two Dragons seeing red.

The Book Of Negroes, CBC – Part 5 of 6
As racial tensions boil in Nova Scotia, Aminata organizes a final journey back to Africa.

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Featured, Mr. D

Review: Mr. D hits a home run with Roberto Alomar

When Mr. D executive producer Mike Volpe told me a few weeks ago that Baseball Hall of Famer—and former Toronto Blue Jays second baseman—Roberto Alomar would be guest-starring this season, I was giddy.

How would he be worked into the storyline, written by my former classmate, Anita Kapila? Would it be baseball-related? Would it involve Gerry knowing Alomar somehow or at least acting like he knew him?

In an interesting twist in “President Jimmy,” Alomar didn’t even appear on-screen with Mr. D at all. Instead, he was part of a secondary storyline involving Robert, Trudy and Malik. See, every year during Xavier’s student council elections, someone plasters the school with posters with Alomar for President emblazoned on them. Fed up, Robert banned all Alomar posters and pins from the premises. And still they magically appeared. The way the storyline rolled out, it was assumed Trudy was behind the whole thing, until the episode’s closing minutes when Alomar appeared on-screen, helping Malik post more election signs.

“I just retired, and I get bored. So I drop by the schools and I mess around,” Alomar said to the camera. (Alomar’s acting skills from those McCain fruit punch commercials paid off.)

It should be noted that Mr. D‘s filming style changed for “President Jimmy,” with cameras capturing the action like a mockumentary. It made for several funny moments (like Alomar’s admission), especially when it came to scenes involving Jimmy, Mr. D, Lisa and new librarian Miss Terdie (Kathleen Phillips, Sunnyside). With the elections in full swing, Lisa’s class project was to record the process for posterity and they captured democracy in all its glory. Like Mr. D convincing Jimmy to run for president because Gerry didn’t want Natalie to three-peat as president.

The best part of the instalment for me—aside from Alomar—was footage of the ongoing feud between Lisa and Miss Terdie. Both ladies have their quirks—the former neatness and cleanliness and the latter a deep love for books and their fair treatment—so when Lisa didn’t put books she’d pulled off the shelf on Terdie’s “To be shelved” cart, it was war. Terdie drew a caricature of Lisa on her classroom board, titled it “Demon Mason” and removed the erasers from the class so Lisa couldn’t eliminate it.

I miss Mr. Leung, but Miss Terdie promises to be a memorable character as well. Especially if her feud with Lisa continues.

Notes and quotes

  • How many teachers use Wikipedia as their source material? I’m hoping not many.
  • “He’s a Golden Glove-wearing baseball slugger.” I love Robert’s sport savvy

Mr. D airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC.

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