Tag Archives: AMI TV

Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Blind home chefs compete in AMI-tv’s inspiring, inclusive Menu Match-up

At first glance, AMI-tv’s Menu Match-Up seems like any other culinary competition program. Home cooks have to prepare tasty dishes using secret ingredients in a specified amount of time. Their foods are judged and a winner is declared. What sets Menu Match-Up apart from those other programs? The home cooks are blind or low vision.

Debuting Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET on AMI-tv, Menu Match-Up is the latest program—like Four Senses and Eyes for the Job before it—to spotlight blind or low vision people doing everyday things. Now Menu Match-Up pushes things a little further by testing these folks’ skills in the kitchen. They’re not doing it alone. Each blind cook is teamed with a sighted professional chef to pull it all together.

Hosted by Matt Basile of Fidel Gastro’s restaurant and TV’s Rebel Without a Kitchen, Menu Match-Up is executive-produced by Jonathan and Drew Scott of Property Brothers fame via their production company Scott Brothers Entertainment. That’s quite the pedigree for a project on AMI-tv and shows just how much Accessible Media Inc. is committed to creating unique, inclusive television for their viewers. You may have to be blind or low vision to compete on Menu Match-Up but you don’t need to be to enjoy the series. Home cook Dan and Jonny O’Callaghan of Bru Restaurant take on home cook Sylvia and Joe Friday of Calii Love. Who will impress judges Missy Hui of Fabbrica Restaurant, blogger Hubert Leung and Deji Oduwole of The Odu Group and win the trip for two to Niagara-on-the-Lake?

In the beginning moments of Episode 1, it really was up for grabs. With an hour to create an appetizer and a main course, the duos needed to build a partnership quickly. And, with mystery items like chorizo sausage, honeycomb, mustard greens, heirloom tomatoes and jalapeño-flavoured cheese snacks, it wouldn’t be easy. Sylvia and Joe went with a salad and pasta while Dan and Jonny opted for a tomato salad and version of Beef Stroganoff using the sausage. What I immediately like about the first episode of Menu Match-Up is that Sylvia and Dan were not only in on the planning but the execution as well. It would have been easy to have them chop while Joe and Jonny did all the work. That isn’t how it rolled out at all, proving that being blind or low vision doesn’t mean you can’t be involved in creating high-end food. Who wins the first instalment of Menu Match-Up? Tune in to find out!

Menu Match-Up airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on AMI-tv. Check your local listings for where AMI-tv is available in your area.

 

 

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Industry News

AMI-tv announces fall programming schedule

From a media release:

Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) announced today its diverse schedule for the 2017 fall season including returning favourites, programs available for the first time with description, a collection of compelling documentaries and the addition of a second movie night.

AMI This Week, will kick off a new season on September 4 at 7 p.m. ET with a special one-hour episode further exploring the station’s new fall programs, featuring exclusive interviews and sneak peeks. Additionally, the AMI This Week crew heads to the set of Murdoch Mysteries for a behind the scenes look at the show and chats with some of the stars, including Yannick Bisson. The new season of Murdoch Mysteries begins October 1 on AMI-tv.

This season AMI This Week welcomes a new co-host as motivational speaker and former Paralympic rower Victoria Nolan joins Anthony McLachlan. New episodes of AMI This Week begin September 11 at a new time, 8:30 p.m. ET.

AMI original productions remain a pillar of the fall schedule with returning programs like Blind Sighted with Kelly MacDonald and Challenges and Change with Craig Oliver, along with a number of new productions including Menu Match-up and Food Spin with Chef Aleem. Additionally, AMI is producing a variety of original documentaries to share compelling stories from across Canada. This fall tune in for an exclusive interview with The Honourable Carla Qualtrough, catch Grant Hardy taking on the infamous Grouse Grind in Vancouver, and more.

Returning favourites to AMI-tv include: Law and Order: SVU, House, Magnum, P.I. and Schitt’s Creek. New additions include the legal drama Suits and never-before described episodes of Elementary, a contemporary update to the classic character of Sherlock Holmes. AMI-tv has also added a second movie night to the schedule – described movies will now run every Friday and Saturday and commercial free movies will air at midnight.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Canadians fight to find jobs in AMI-tv’s inspiring Employable Me

Finding a job is challenging enough, particularly so for folks who have a physical disability or condition. AMI-tv’s latest series spotlights Canadians who want to work despite being in situations that—at first glance—would seem to make them unemployable.

Debuting Friday with back-to-back episodes beginning at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Employable Me—adapted from the British series by Thomas Howe Associates Inc.—introduces viewers to Canadians who are willing to work but are held back because of their health status. The first instalment introduces Becca and Riley, two people willing and able to work on the road to independence.

They both face a rocky road and I admit to assuming failure was in the cards. Becca’s Tourette Syndrome causes her to yell out “Roar!” several times a minute, and even more frequently and at increasing volume when she’s stressed. Becca has plenty keeping her on edge: bills to pay, including rent, and neighbours who complain about her roaring. Cameras capture the free-spirited gal as she gamely drops off resumés for interviews that almost never happen. The same is true for Riley, whose Asperger Syndrome keeps him living at home with his mother and dreaming of the day he can move out.

But rather than focusing on what’s not working and those stacks of job applications that went nowhere, Employable Me sides with the positive as specialists work with Becca, Riley and others to find them suitable employment. Turns out Becca’s got a flair for flowers, which leads to a gig at a florist’s shop. Riley, who loves pizza, is perfectly-matched for a role at Pizza Nova. Future episodes focus on job applicants with autism, blindness, OCD, Down Syndrome and ADHD.

What Employable Me proves is that anyone can find a job, if the time is taken to focus and figure out what the applicant’s strengths are, regardless of their health condition. It’s inspiring stuff.

Employable Me airs Fridays at 9 and 10 p.m. ET/PT on AMI-tv. Check AMI’s website for channel information in your area.

Image courtesy of Accessible Media Inc.

 

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Industry News

Employable Me to premiere in Canada on AMI-tv on August 11

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From a media release:

Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) announced today that it will air the Canadian edition of Employable Me, a moving documentary series featuring job seekers who are determined to show that having a physical disability or neurological condition shouldn’t make them unemployable.

Produced by Thomas Howe Associates Inc. (THA), the six-part series provides an honest and emotional look at the challenges that individuals of varying abilities face in the job market. Each one-hour episode features two job seekers living with vision loss or a neurological condition such as Tourette Syndrome, Asperger Syndrome, Down Syndrome or ADHD.

Throughout the series the cast will focus on their strengths and explore their inherent talents with the help of experts in the medical and employment fields. The journey isn’t always easy but each individual is determined to overcome their challenges, help change employers’ perceptions and land a coveted job that they’re passionate about.

In order to be accessible for individuals living with vision loss, Employable Me features Integrated Described Video, where description is incorporated during the production phase, eliminating the need for a secondary audio track.

Employable Me is produced by THA in partnership with AMI and TVO, and is licensed by all3media international.

The series will air on AMI-tv with back to back episodes on August 11, 18 and 25 at 9 and 10 p.m. ET and PT. The full series will be re-broadcast on September 3 from 3 to 9 p.m. Full episodes of Employable Me will be available online at ami.ca.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

AMI-tv digs into DIY with debut of Eyes for the Job

It makes total sense for the folks at AMI-tv to follow up their cooking series Four Senses with Eyes for the Job. Aside from cooking, home renovations take up a lot of our time so why not launch a do-it-yourself series?

Debuting Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET on AMI-tv, Eyes for the Job is designed for viewers who are blind or low vision by having hosts Chris Judge and Rebekah Higgs describe what they’re doing while it’s being done. That’s evident in Episode 1 as the pair turn an old piano into a showstopper bar and tile the kitchen at Higgs’ home; they give a step-by-step description of exactly what they’re doing as they do it.

Shot and produced in Halifax by Clerisy Entertainment, the 13-episodes spotlight the skills of Higgs—an accomplished singer, songwriter and do-it-yourself mom—and Judge, who was born blind. That didn’t stop him from catching the DIY bug from his father.

“My father wasn’t trained carpenter, but he did it all of his life,” Judge says on the phone from Halifax. “As a kid, I was always getting in his way. I was out in his workshop putting my hands all over everything and asking him more questions than I’m sure he cared to answer.” Judge honed his skills in junior high by taking industrial arts, first embracing woodworking and then, as an adult, turning towards handyman jobs. Judge has always had an uncanny knack for being able to dismantle and rebuild things; he once shocked friends by putting together a barbecue grill just from feel.

Still, there were parts of Eyes for the Job that him pause: painting. As Judge, an assistive technology trainer at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind recalls, he wasn’t sure how a blind person could successfully paint walls to the standard a sighted person could. But with Higgs’ help, he not only learned how to do it but do it well.

Eyes for the Job isn’t just an excellent DIY series for its intended audience, it’s a fantastic renovation series period, something producer Dale Stevens strived for.

“What a great bar to set on this project, if we can make this not only for the audience at AMI but for anybody on any network,” Stevens says on the line from Dartmouth, NS. “I think we’ve created something that—regardless of what visual state you are—you’re going to watch this show and you’re going to like it.”

 

 

 

Eyes for the Job airs Fridays at 8:30 p.m. ET on AMI-tv.

Image courtesy of AMI.

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