Tag Archives: CBC

From a media release:

CBC, Insight Productions, and The Gurin Company today announced production details for the second season of the original reality competition format CANADA’S ULTIMATE CHALLENGE, with Canadian broadcaster Brandon Gonez on board to host. Shooting this September and October, CANADA’S ULTIMATE CHALLENGE (7×60) turns the entire country into a giant obstacle course with challenges taking place from coast to coast. Kicking off in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the series is set to premiere on CBC Gem and CBC in 2024. More details, including the Players and locations, will be announced in the coming months.

Each episode of CANADA’S ULTIMATE CHALLENGE takes place at an awe-inspiring location where the Players – 20 people from across the country competing in teams of four – compete in spectacular team challenges that put their skills to the test.

Brandon Gonez Bio
Brandon Gonez is one of the country’s most beloved broadcasters and the CEO/Founder of Gonez Media (GMI), Canada’s fastest-growing online news and entertainment company. Prior to the launch of GMI, Gonez was a reporter and anchor at CP24 and Your Morning and began his career in Northwest British Columbia as a video journalist for CFTK-TV News. Born in Toronto and raised in Brampton, ON, Gonez is a graduate of York University with a B.A. in Communications and has a certificate in Television and Radio broadcasting from Seneca College.

Commissioned by CBC, CANADA’S ULTIMATE CHALLENGE is executive produced by Erin Brock, John Brunton, Mark Lysakowski, and Jeff Thrasher for Insight Productions (A Boat Rocker Company) and Phil Gurin for The Gurin Company.

Heartland

Link: Family dynamics: Happiness and trauma will be a part of Heartland’s 17th season

September 30, 2023 Greg David

From Eric Volmers the Calgary Herald:

Link: Family dynamics: Happiness and trauma will be a part of Heartland’s 17th season
There is a scene near the end of Heartland’s Season 17 opener where the Fleming sisters are cloud-watching near a pond in the fields of Alberta. For the most part, CBC’s Sunday-night favourite has been seen as a family-friendly enterprise known for its horses, wholesome humour, romance, beautiful scenery and the odd flash of gentle drama. Continue reading.

Plan B

Vinessa Antoine, Vincent Leclerc and Sarah Booth to star in the second season of the CBC original drama series Plan B

September 20, 2023 Greg David

From a media release:

CBC today announced a second season of the time-bending original drama series PLAN B (6×60) from KOTV. An adaptation of the popular French-language drama series of the same name (now in its fourth season for Radio-Canada), season 2 will focus on a completely new story, starring Vinessa Antoine (Diggstown, Interrogation), Vincent Leclerc (lxe-13, The Revenant), and Sarah Booth (Three Pines, Heartland).

The new season follows Mia Coleman (Antoine), a Montreal police officer. Mia is approaching her fortieth birthday and grieving the end of her relationship with her ex, and her ex’s son, whom she embraced as her own. At work, the constant injustice she faces gnaws at her own sense of purpose. Mia’s already tumultuous life is turned upside-down when a seemingly routine intervention in a family crisis involving Paul (Leclerc) and Keri Whitman (Booth) results in the worst imaginable outcome. What if Mia and her partner Tyler had the evidence that would have prevented this life-altering event? Through Plan B, a strange agency that can take her back in time, Mia will stop at nothing to prevent a family tragedy, and will embark on a journey during which she’ll delve deep into her own psyche, confronting buried emotions and an unresolved past. Could Mia’s chosen path be a desperate but subconscious attempt to heal her own wounds? Season 2 of PLAN B explores the mind of a woman who, in her efforts to change a family’s destiny, discovers her own.

A CBC original production, PLAN B is produced by Quebec-based production company KOTV, with international distribution by Red Arrow Studios International. Jean-François Asselin, who co-created the original French-language series, directs and also co-writes, with Celeste Parr, this English adaptation. Asselin also serves as Showrunner and Executive Producer, alongside Louis Morissette. For KOTV, Louis-Philippe Drolet, Celeste Parr, Mélanie Viau, Jacques Drolet and Aisling “Ash” Chin-Yee are Executive Producers. For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Entertainment, Factual & Sports; Trish Williams is Executive Director, Scripted Content; Sarah Adams is Director of Current Production, Drama; and Nicola Makoway is Executive in Charge of Production.

Plan B Internationally
The French series is enjoying great success on the international market. Adapted and broadcast by TF1 in France in May 2021, the made-for-France adaptation of the series starring Julie De Bona rose to the top of the charts. In Flemish Belgium, the adaptation broadcast in March 2021 was also a great success. Additionally, Season 2 won Best Scripted Format at the 2020 C21 International Format Awards.

Pier-Luc Funk (Genesis, Matthias & Maxime) stars in Season 4 of the original Quebecois version of the series. This new season is available in the Vero.tv section of ICI Tou.tv Extra and currently airing on ICI Télé.

About KOTV
For over a decade, Montreal-based company KOTV has partnered with renowned creators to bring a multitude of programs in fiction, documentary, variety, magazine and youth to the screen. A leader in the field of production, adaptation and television distribution, KOTV is distinguished by its ability to renew itself. Its ambitions know no borders and the company continues to ascend by opening up to new markets via original English-language productions through international co-productions, and by exploiting its drama and variety formats around the world.

Moonshine

Link: Jennifer Finnigan Raises a Glass to ‘Quirky, Weird’ Moonshine and the Schitt’s Creek-Like Dramedy’s CW Debut

July 8, 2023 Greg David

From Matt Webb Mitovich of TV Line:

Link: Jennifer Finnigan Raises a Glass to ‘Quirky, Weird’ Moonshine and the Schitt’s Creek-Like Dramedy’s CW Debut
The CW this Friday night at 9/8c invites you to get a taste of Moonshine, an acquired Canadian dramedy set against the backdrop of financial hardship, small-town intrigue and a long-buried secret that threatens to annihilate a quirky clan once and for all. Continue reading.

Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Canada’s Ultimate Challenge renewed by CBC for second season, nationwide casting call currently underway

June 11, 2023 Greg David

From a media release:

It’s Game time! As announced on Thursday by CBC as part of its programming slate announcement, CANADA’S ULTIMATE CHALLENGE, the reality competition series that transforms the country into an epic obstacle course, will return for a second season. The national public broadcaster has kicked off a nationwide search for energetic Canadians seeking the adventure of a lifetime. Aspiring competitors who love adventure and testing their limits are encouraged to apply online now at cbc.ca/canadasultimatechallenge for the chance to participate in the upcoming season. Casting will be open until July 23, 2023. Produced by Insight Productions and The Gurin Company, season two will shoot on location across Canada this fall.

The inaugural season of CANADA’S ULTIMATE CHALLENGE saw teams, coached by legendary Canadian athletes, compete in incredible challenges at awe-inspiring locations including: Whistler, BC; Squamish, BC; Hinton, AB; Whitehorse, YT; Kelowna, BC; Sudbury, ON; Thousand Islands, ON; Québec City, QC; and the Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. In the end, Team Black won the entire competition and claimed the ultimate prize – a trip to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 to cheer on Team Canada. Audiences can catch up on all the action from the first season on CBC Gem.

CANADA’S ULTIMATE CHALLENGE is a competition reality format that turns the entire country into a giant obstacle course. Superstar coaches guide and mentor teams of everyday Canadians at site-specific challenges in a unique competition structure. Each episode takes place at an iconic Canadian location where teams compete in spectacular Solo, Tandem or Team challenges that test them physically and mentally. Throughout the series, the coaches make strategic decisions and motivate their players to victory.

A CBC original series, CANADA’S ULTIMATE CHALLENGE is executive produced by John Brunton, Erin Brock, Mark Lysakowski, and Jeff Thrasher for Insight Productions (a Boat Rocker company) and Phil Gurin for The Gurin Company.