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Industry News

CBC/Radio Canada announces new diversity commitment

From a media release:

At the Banff World Media Festival today, CBC/Radio-Canada announced a new commitment to diversity for all English and French-language commissioned programs across scripted and factual genres. The public broadcaster made this announcement in the context of its new strategic plan, “Your Stories Taken to Heart,” which prioritizes giving underrepresented Canadians greater opportunities to build their skills, experience and relationships in the industry.

By 2025, CBC/Radio-Canada aims to ensure that at least one of the key creatives in all scripted and factual commissioned programs will be held by a person from a diverse background. Key creatives include producer, director, writer, showrunner and lead performer.

In cases where the talent pipeline may not be as robust, the public broadcaster will expect a commitment from independent producers to mentor or train a diverse person in one of the key creative roles of a greenlit production. For the purposes of this commitment, a diverse person includes members of visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ2+ community.

This year, CBC/Radio-Canada surpassed its goal of gender parity across its commissioned programs. During the 2018/19 broadcast year across all original English and French shows, the public broadcaster supported 62% female-led projects where the majority of the key creative roles of producer, director, writer and showrunner were held by women.

Read more on diversity and inclusion at CBC/Radio-Canada.

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Featured, Pure

Pure’s Alex Paxton-Beesley: “It feels so special”

You can hear the enthusiasm in Alex Paxton-Beesley’s voice when she talks about Pure. She was crushed when CBC pulled the plug on the show after one season and thrilled when it was resurrected on Super Channel Fuse. Paxton-Beesley uses one word to describe Michael Amo’s creation: special.

With Episode 3 headed our way on Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel Fuse, we spoke to her about hers and Anna Funk’s journey.

What were your initial thoughts after Pure was cancelled after Season 1?
Alex Paxton-Beesley: I was devastated because I felt like it was such a great world. I knew from talking to Michael Amo about it that there was a ton of story left to tell. I was excited for the story arc that he had planned for Season 2. And then the rumours started. There was rumbling around in the fall a year later. ‘What do you mean, stand by? What does that mean?’ It felt really surreal, even into shooting Season 2. We would look around and say, ‘Are we actually here? The dream came true?’ It’s one of those projects that feels so special.

What did Michael Amo tell you about Season 2 that got you excited?
APB: How different life was going to be at the beginning of Season 2. The Funks have been cast out of everything that they were fighting for, really, the first time around. I thought that was a very interesting place to start from because they’re sort of in purgatory. Anna has one foot in the Auslander world and she doesn’t to be there. She’s desperately trying to keep a foot in the Mennonite world but they don’t want her there. And she’s also trying to protect her kids and give them some semblance of a life. Dylan Everett, Jessica Clement and I had some conversations about what we thought had happened in that year or so since the end of Season 1 because Noah walks away and all of a sudden it’s the three of us.

That was a very satisfying and fun conversation because we went all over the place with our imagining.

How has the tone changed for Season 2?
APB: I think it’s gotten much, much darker. Part of that is afforded by the plot. We’re not so much within the Mennonite colony. There is so much more going on in the outsider world. It’s been a very satisfying element, to push the envelope story-wise.

Christopher Heyerdahl is a new addition to the cast and plays Augustus Nickel. What can you say about Augustus?
APB: I think people are going to be pretty darn surprised at the kind of man Augustus Nickel is going to turn out to be. [Laughs.] He is the most incredible human being and actor and at times made my life very difficult because he is so delightful as Augustus and in character, Anna is not always delighted. He made it really, really hard to stay in character.

The shock for me was Gord Rand returning as the not-so-dead Abel.
APB: Gord Rand is one of the most amazing actors we have in Canada. He is the most inspirational person I’ve ever seen and I want to eat his brain and absorb his knowledge. When he was killed, we all knew he wasn’t really dead because he’s too good of a character and his journey is really rich, especially now. The conversation he has with Noah in the first episode about seeing God and maybe God just wants us to be happy. I think that’s going to be a very powerful perspective for Noah to have to contend with.

Alyson Hannigan was announced as a cast member but nothing else has been revealed. Can you say anything?
APB: I’m not allowed to say much. She is going to be appearing later on in the season. She’s playing a very fun character. The day I was on set watching her, I was just losing my mind laughing. She is so funny. The character she plays is super-feisty, mouthy and integral to the plot.

Pure airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel Fuse.

Images courtesy of Super Channel.

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Featured

Comments and queries for the week of June 7

Canadian TV, especially the shows produced and distributed by non-network owned companies, live and die off their ability to be sold internationally. The East Coast accent [on Hudson & Rex] is probably seen as too alienating to foreign viewers. Since Hudson & Rex has been a hit here, hopefully, that’ll encourage them to be a bit more open about where the show is set in the future. —Jonathan

I disagree completely. People actually like shows that stand out culturally and visually yet, for some reason, certain Canadian shows try to make their shows too generic which IMO makes them inferior. I’ve long had a problem with shows trying to disguise their settings to try to appear as American. Currently that’s my biggest peeve with Northern Rescue. I’ve noticed they’ve tried to be subtle about the setting to pass themselves off as American. Little things like Scout going home to Boston. Would he have actually had his passport with him and would border services let a 15-year-old by himself that easily through? Not once have the characters said they were in Canada. It pisses me off, especially from a CBC show. —Alicia

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg.david@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.

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Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Canadian TV icon Mike Holmes joins CTV, announces new series Holmes Family Rescue

From a media release:

CTV announced live today from the #CTVUpfront in Toronto that Canadian TV icon Mike Holmes and his family are coming to Bell Media. The new partnership is anchored by the development and production of the all-new original television series HOLMES FAMILY RESCUE, featuring Holmes teaming up with his children Mike Jr. and Sherry in their biggest show yet, a Summer 2020 tent-pole series for CTV.

Something never seen before from Mike Holmes, the CTV Original Series HOLMES FAMILY RESCUE is an all-new lifestyle program featuring the fan-favourite TV host and professional contractor taking on the biggest and most challenging journey of his career. Helping homeowners MAKE IT RIGHT® in epic fashion are Mike’s kids – Mike Jr. and Sherry – who join their father to change lives and turn this inspirational new series into a family affair. Over the course of the season, the Holmes family works tirelessly to drastically improve and transform the lives of homeowners with their trademark relatable, hilarious, and heartfelt family dynamic.

Also announced as part of this extensive new partnership and solidifying the Holmes family as CTV Life Channel’s foremost personalities is a second series, HOLMES 911, premiering this fall on CTV Life Channel. From Make It Right Productions, the show features Mike Holmes going back to where he started: helping homeowners. But this time, he’s being helped by his kids, contractors Mike Jr. and Sherry, who share Mike’s passion for helping people who have been the victims of unscrupulous contractors and bad DIYers. Over 12 episodes, Mike, Mike Jr., and Sherry fix five houses, and viewers see these “houses” become “homes” again.

CTV Life Channel will also feature a vast library of previous programming from the family’s Make It Right production company, including the 2018 series HOLMES: NEXT GENERATION, which will be available to Canadian viewers for the very first time.

HOLMES FAMILY RESCUE is currently available for customized brand partnership opportunities.

About Mike Holmes
With more than 10 record-breaking, top-rated, and award-wining series and specials under his belt, Mike Holmes’ no-nonsense approach and MAKE IT RIGHT® attitude has struck a chord with television audiences and industry leaders worldwide. He has changed the way people think about their homes and the building industry for good.  Mike has joined forces with the next generation of Holmes’ – his son Mike Jr. and daughter Sherry Holmes, both contractors who grew up playing, watching, and working with their dad.

About HOLMES FAMILY RESCUE
A CTV Original Production, HOLMES FAMILY RESCUE is produced by Make It Right Productions in association with CTV. Mike Holmes is Executive Producer. Paul McConvey is Producer.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Jennifer Podemski tells stories of Indigenous communities in APTN’s Future History

I can’t get enough of history, especially when it comes to Canada. What I dismissed as boring when I was in high school has become a fascination. And, thanks to APTN, I’ve learned a lot about Indigenous peoples and their stories.

A plethora of tales is told in Season 2 of Jennifer Podemski’s excellent Future History. Airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET, the program has really hit its stride in the sophomore go-round as producer-director Podemski follows Indigenous activist and artist Sarain Fox and archaeologist Kris Nahrgang through 13 half-hour episodes. For Nahrgang, this journey is deeply personal. He was raised not knowing anything about his First Nations roots and continues to gain knowledge this year. In the show’s May 14 debut, viewers learned how Nahrgang’s grandmother covered her skin with makeup to look white and joined what Nahrgang’s mother called “white clubs.”

“It’s not a story you often hear,” Podemski says. “Especially in this journey of reclamation, I think that many Canadians who see themselves as white, or non-Native, might never have considered they too might be a Kris.” The idea for Future History came about because of a meeting Podemski had with a production company working with Nahrgang on a possible archaeology project. The actress, writer, producer and director was intrigued at the idea of something historical, but with a future slant. Adding a younger co-host, Podemski reasoned, would polarize not just Nahrgang’s distance from his culture but his age and on-camera experience.

“That also helps people really understand that he is on a very uncomfortable journey,” she says. The uncomfortable feeling really comes through, especially when Nahrgang gamely agrees to attend an Ojibway immersion camp where no English is spoken for days. Fox and Nahrgang visit different areas of the country in their journeys, visiting Southern Ontario locales like Orillia, Peterborough, Kitchener and Manitoulin Island. Their segments are broken up by the Talking Stick, where Indigenous members of the community look straight into the camera to vent frustrations, give advice or voice concerns.

“We were only looking for a minute, but it started a lot of great conversations and I really wanted it to feel not necessarily thematically tied to the episode,” Podemski says. “I wanted it to be a voice from the community, another texture that may be totally unrelated to what we are talking about.

“When we’re telling stories through an Indigenous lens it’s so important to me that we don’t paint them with one brush.”

Future History airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on APTN. You can watch past episodes on APTN.ca.

Image courtesy of APTN.

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