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TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
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Link: Will CTV’s new morning show be ‘Canada AM: The Next Generation’?

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From Bill Brioux of the Canadian Press:

Will CTV’s new morning show be ‘Canada AM: The Next Generation’?
t’s always a wrench when a long-running series or a favourite TV star says goodbye. Viewers who grew up with David Letterman still miss him a year after his 33-year late night stint ended. Michael Strahan caused a kerfuffle last month after bolting from “Live with Kelly & Michael” after just four years. When “The Simpsons” finally go, two or three generations of fans will have a cow. Continue reading.

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Dark Matter

Dark Matter returns to Space on July 1

From a media release:

Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Android! Smash Hit Series DARK MATTER Returns July 1, Exclusively on Space

  • Season 2 of fan-favourite thriller returns to Fridays at 10 p.m. ET timeslot, beginning July 1
  • Franka Potente guest stars, Melanie Liburd and Shaun Sipos join the cast
  • DARK MATTER Season 1 averaged more than a half a million viewers

Space’s most-watched new series DARK MATTER returns with 13, new one-hour episodes when Season 2 premieres Friday, July 1 at 10 p.m. ET. Created by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, executive producers and writers of the STARGATE franchise, the original Canadian series stars Marc Bendavid as One; Melissa O’Neil as Two; Anthony Lemke as Three; Alex Mallari Jr. as Four; Jodelle Ferland as Five; Roger Cross as Six; and Zoie Palmer as The Android. Season 1 of DARK MATTER experienced explosive ratings with 520,000 average viewers tuning in Fridays at 10 p.m. ET, making Space the most-watched specialty network in the timeslot for all key adult demos.

DARK MATTER navigates through a fragmented crew aboard a derelict spaceship, the Raza, with no memory of how they got there. Facing threats at every turn, they work together to survive a voyage fueled by vengeance, betrayal, and hidden secrets. Season 2 finds the crew of the Raza embroiled in an intergalactic conspiracy, seeking a mysterious device that may hold the key to victory in a looming all-out corporate war.

As previously announced, joining the DARK MATTER crew this season is Melanie Liburd (GAME OF THRONES) as Nyx, an ex-con with killer instincts and Shaun Sipos (MELROSE PLACE), a world-class surgeon with a dark past. Also boarding the Raza is star of iconic cult classic Run Lola Run, Franka Potente, who guest-stars as Commander Shaddick, a cool, calculated force of nature who’s hell-bent on making things difficult for the Raza crew.

Throughout its first season run, DARK MATTER was the most-watched new series on Canadian entertainment specialty channels. For those who missed the first run, Space takes a quantum leap to the beginning of it all with a Season 1 marathon beginning at 8 a.m. ET on Friday, July 1. Making for an all-Canadian Canada Day double play, the DARK MATTER marathon leads into the Season 2 premiere of Space original series, KILLJOYS at 9 p.m. ET, followed by DARK MATTER Season 2 debut at 10 p.m. ET.

In the Season 2 premiere episode “Welcome To Your New Home” (Friday, July 1 at 10 p.m. ET), the crew of the Raza have been betrayed by one of their own, with a motivation that questions everyone’s loyalties. The rest of the crew find themselves incarcerated in the notorious Hyperion-8 Detention Facility where they must deal with dangerous fellow inmates a corrupt Warden, and corporate agenda that threatens their lives.

Developed with Prodigy Pictures (LOST GIRL), executive producers for DARK MATTER are Jay Firestone (LOST GIRL), creators Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, and Vanessa Piazza (LOST GIRL).

Source : Numeris

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Link: Tears, hugs and smiles as Canada AM hosts say goodbye

From Victoria Ahearn of the Globe and Mail:

Tears, hugs and smiles as Canada AM hosts say goodbye
There were some farewell tears but for the most part, the hosts of “Canada AM” kept the mood upbeat and by-the-book on Friday as the venerable show aired for the last time. A day after the unexpected announcement that CTV would be abruptly cancelling the show after 43 seasons, co-hosts Beverly Thomson, Marci Ien and Jeff Hutcheson greeted viewers with smiles and only briefly acknowledged the show’s fate before getting straight into the day’s headlines. Continue reading.

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Caught, Featured, Private Eyes, Sensitive Skin, The Council

Comments and queries for the week of June 3

2 Comments

From our mailbag:

Cardinal

All these media releases keep saying Cardinal is CTV’s first ever serialized drama – huh?

References to that six-part murder mystery as “CTV’s first-ever original serialized drama” popped up in CTV’s announcement this week about The Disappearance, which they were billing as their second-ever serialized drama. People with long memories cited 1973’s Starlost as likely the first serialized original drama on the network, with later contenders including Would Be Kings, Associates, Whistler, The City (aka Flesh and Blood) and Power Play. After my inquiry, CTV adjusted the media release on their website to say that Cardinal and The Disappearance are the  first- and second-ever limited run original serialized dramas.  Would Be Kings was a two-part miniseries they’re not including in the definition of “limited run”, but I’ve simply deleted the reference in the media release as published on this site.

Caught/The Council 

Just realized CBC didn’t mention “Caught” in their latest press release about the new season. I wonder what’s up? 

As our questioner saw immediately after tweeting us, Allan Hawco, the star and producer, tweeted that the show will be delayed from the winter 2017 time period originally announced. The Council is another show missing from CBC’s recent season media release, and was originally announced as a fall 2016 newcomer. CBC’s Sally Catto explained that Caught was caught in a financing issue, while The Council has been delayed because of climate and location issues — it was being filmed in Iqaluit and Manitoba.

I think the climate excuse is a crock. The north is the north and the show needs to adapt to what they are given.

Sure, but a few points to consider …

  • Sally Catto was candid about financial issues on Caught, though she could have made a generic comment about production delays for both shows.
  • The originally announced time from greenlight to air was fast in Canadian TV terms.
  • The logistics of shipping everything up to a place that doesn’t have a TV industry infrastructure and that has a very short filming window are not exactly easy (for example Arctic Air had its own short-window issues filming in Yellowknife which isn’t as remote as Iqaluit). It’s not hard for me to believe they ran into location scouting, crewing, shipping, etc. issues and didn’t want to rush the show to air to meet a self-imposed deadline.

We may never know if there were other issues involved as well, but I don’t have any problem believing climate and location was a big one. I also think it’s admirable they want to shoot in the place the series is set rather than faking the Arctic around Vancouver.

Sensitive Skin

Who plays David (silver-haired man) in tonight’s episode of Sensitive Skin (season 2 episode 2, May 29, 2016)? Thanks.

Guest starring in that Kim Cattrall series is Hamilton-born, Edmonton-raised Rick Roberts (pictured above), who also has a starring role in CBC’s This Life (which returns for a second season Sundays this fall). He’s had a long and varied career in Canada and the US so he might look familiar from Republic of Doyle, Traders, Jack (the Jack Layton TV movie), Pontypool or a number of other roles — not always with that distinctive silver hair, of course.

Private Eyes

This seems good, but it just reminds me a bit too much of Republic of Doyle, don’t you think? I didn’t know it was inspired by a book though, so it might be just a coincidence, but I don’t know …

I think if you watch the show you’ll see it has a similar tone to Republic of Doyle but it’s far from a carbon copy.  Given the CBC series isn’t coming back, its fans might find this one scratching a similar itch, though. It’s worth noting that wisecracking detective/cop shows are not rare, especially in Canada — no reason to think there’s a copycat situation going on here.

Wipeout Canada

Just curious how to become an applicant for the show Wipeout Canada.

The show had its first and only season in 2011 on the now-defunct TVropolis channel, so the short answer is you can’t. Actually that’s the long answer too, since even the longer-running U.S. version is now off the air.

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