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New Production “Stand Up For Canada Starring Rick Mercer” goes to camera this week

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From a media release:

Producers Bruce Hills Entertainment, Counterfeit Pictures, and Hemmings Films are pleased to announce that they will go into production on Stand Up For Canada Starring Rick Mercer, a new one-hour comedy special set to premiere on CBC and CBC Gem. Timing for the premiere will be confirmed at a later date.

Set to film in front of a live audience in Saint John, New Brunswick on October 17, the special will capture a night on Rick Mercer’s wildly successful coast-to-coast comedy tour, which continues through October 2025, and is presented by MRG Live and Bruce Hills Entertainment. Mercer is joined by Canadian comedians Sophie Buddle, Mayce Galoni and Julie Kim, and performed 28 shows across 20 cities, with 24 sold-out venues and more than 40,000 tickets sold.

The Stand Up For Canada Starring Rick Mercer special promises to deliver a funny, insightful and heartfelt celebration of Canada through the comedy of one of the country’s most beloved voices, as well as a new generation of rising stand-up stars. Together, Mercer, Buddle, Galoni and Kim will shine a light on the diverse perspectives, stories and humour that make Canada’s comedy scene one of the richest in the world.

Stand Up For Canada Starring Rick Mercer is produced by Bruce Hills Entertainment, Counterfeit Pictures, and Hemmings Films, in association with CBC.

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Rick Mercer Report

Link: Rick Mercer embodies Canada, without the smugness

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Rick Mercer embodies Canada, without the smugness
On Tuesday, after 15 seasons and 277 episodes, The Rick Mercer Report will cease to be. There will be an hour-long episode (CBC, 8 p.m.) with highlights from across the years, and one last rant from Mercer.

Frankly, it’s time. The show is still doing well in the ratings. It gets close to one million viewers every week, at a time when Canadian TV struggles to reach viewers for Canadian productions. Ratings for everything appear to be down, from The National to new, heavily promoted series like Caught, which has about 500,000 viewers. Only Murdoch Mysteries remains a juggernaut and the only Canadian weekly show that, like Mercer’s, reaches about a million people on the night it airs. Continue reading.

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Rick Mercer Report

Link: Rick Mercer’s last rant

From Tony Wong of the Toronto Star:

Link: Rick Mercer’s last rant
“I have chairs. Do you want some chairs?”

Rick Mercer points to the studio floor, then looks at me expectantly with that famously arched eyebrow.

We are seated at his anchor desk in the 10th-floor studio at CBC’s Toronto headquarters. “I can sell you them for $20 each. After this week, they have to go.” Continue reading.

 

 

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Rick Mercer Report

Link: Let Rick Mercer’s departure end cowardly comedy in Canada

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Let Rick Mercer’s departure end cowardly comedy in Canada
Here’s the thing that’s highlighted by Mercer’s announced departure – we don’t do savage indignation in Canada. Our TV comedy and news-satire shows don’t really pillory social conventions, stereotypes and political chicanery with any aggression. They do it mildly; they do it too nicely. Nobody in positions of power, or in the viewing audience, is ever made uncomfortable by satire in Canada. Continue reading.

 

 

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Rick Mercer Report

Rick Mercer announces final season of Rick Mercer Report

From a media release:

In one of his signature rants, Rick Mercer today announced that RICK MERCER REPORT will launch its 15th and final season (22 x 30) tomorrow (Tues. Sept. 26) at 8 p.m. ET (8:30 NT) on CBC and cbc.ca/watch. Since the launch of the award-winning hit series in 2004, Canadians have followed the political satirist and Newfoundland native across the country for his one-of-a-kind perspective on Canada and the top news of the week. When Season 15 wraps in spring 2018, 277 episodes of the half-hour comedy will have aired since its debut.

“RICK MERCER REPORT has evolved over 15 years but one thing that has always remained consistent is that I have always known that I have the best job in the country,” said Mercer. “That has never changed. I can’t tell you how much fun it’s been. As far as what’s next I have no idea, all I know is that the entire team is hard at work and we have started shooting what I think will be our best season yet.”

Throughout the final season of RICK MERCER REPORT, Mercer will be back on the road with more cross- country exploits and learning experiences, from the Sea Cadet National Regatta in Kingston, Ontario and a shipwreck Festival in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, to the Confederation Bridge in PEI and the Calgary Zoo with Jann Arden, to name a few. In tomorrow’s Season 15 premiere, Mercer makes a stop in Ottawa to train with athletes headed for Toronto’s Invictus Games before heading to a wildlife rescue centre on Vancouver Island.

Returning this season is one of the most popular features in every show – Mercer’s rant – where he expounds on anything that might be on his mind. Also back are regular segments including the creative Photo Challenge, cheeky RMR parodies of TV commercials and political messages, and RMR’s weekly target practice on newsmakers, The Front Page.

RICK MERCER REPORT is the recipient of 4 Gemini and 12 Canadian Screen Awards for television writing and performance and, in 2015, Mercer was once again awarded the Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance in a Variety or Sketch Comedy Program or Series.

Mercer began his career in comedy performing and writing in his hometown St John’s, Newfoundland with a series of one-man stage shows. In 1993, he launched his television career on CBC as one of the creators, performers and writers on the hit topical weekly show THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES. In 1998, he joined Gerald Lunz and Michael Donovan to create the satirical dramatic series Made In Canada, where he again starred and contributed as a writer. In 2001, his CBC special Talking To Americans became the highest rated Canadian comedy special ever with 2.7 million viewers. On July 1, 2014, it was announced that Rick was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and he was inducted in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in September 2015. This past Canada Day, Mercer hosted the three-hour CBC special Canada Day 150! From Coast to Coast to Coast featuring performances in every province and territory across the country.

 

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