Tag Archives: TVO

Children's Programming

Season 5 of marblemedia’s All-Around Champion scores premiere dates

From a media release:

Award-winning global media company, marblemedia along with broadcast partners BYUtv (US) and TVOkids (Canada) announce their premiere dates for season 5 of the high-octane series All-Round Champion. Season 5 is set to air first on BYUtv on Sunday, January 15 at 5pm PT, followed by TVOkids on Wednesday, February 8 at 5pm ET. This latest season comes at the heels of the series winning Best Children’s or Youth Non-Fiction Program or Series at the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards.

For the first time in All-Round Champion history, Season 5 will feature a cast fully comprised of para-athletes—competitors with physical disabilities. However, true to the format, they won’t be competing in their own sports; they’ll be competing in each other’s to see how proficient they can become in a new sport in a short period of time. To reach this goal, they must excel beyond their own expectations. They must learn new skills, persevere, overcome their own physical and mental limits, and most importantly, adapt their abilities to the sport and the sports’ equipment. The athlete with the most points at the end of the season will be crowned the All-Round Champion!

The talented athletes and their sports this season are Brayden Butler (Climbing), Bradley Pedrick (Sailing), Dominic Demaio (Rowing), Gurnoor Chouhan (Goalball), Jackson Atwood (Wheelchair Basketball), Lily Brook (Adaptive Boxing), Maggie Manning (Sledge Hockey), Momo Sutton (Swimming), and Samantha Fraser (Track).

The 10-episode, 60-minute series is hosted by Olympian and World Champion Perdita Felicien, who brings mentorship to the young athletes, along with weekly sports stars that coach and encourage the participants through their respective sports. For this fifth season, some of the sports stars include Britain’s most successful Paralympic sailor, Helena Lucas; four-time Paralympic swimming gold medalist, McKenzie Coan; 31-time Canadian track champion, Josh Cassidy; and Matt Scott, a two-time Paralympic champion in wheelchair basketball and the first disabled athlete featured in a Nike commercial.

All-Round Champion is adapted from the wildly successful Norwegian Best i mest (NRK), which won an International Emmy Kids Award for Non-Scripted Entertainment, as well as a Prix Jeunesse. marblemedia was granted North American format rights from Beta Film.

Executive Producers of the series include Matthew Hornburg, Mark J.W. Bishop, Steve Sloan, and co-Executive Producer Donna Luke for marblemedia, Jeff Simpson and Andra Johnson Duke for BYUtv, and Kirsten Hurd for TVO. Perdita Felicien also serves as Producer.

Image courtesy of Mark Owens.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: The Great Lakes takes centre stage in TVO’s must-see Great Lakes Untamed

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I vividly recall where I was when I first watched Paddle to the Sea.

I was sitting, cross-legged, in my elementary school’s library with my fellow students and watched, transfixed. The 1966 National Film Board of Canada film, based on Holling C. Holling’s book of the same name, is the tale of an Indigenous boy who sets out to carve a man and a canoe. Calling the man Paddle to the Sea, the boy sets his carving down on a frozen stream to await spring. The film follows the adventures the canoe experiences on its long trip from Lake Superior to the Atlantic ocean. Directed by Bill Mason, I never forgot the film.

Neither did Ted Oakes. The veteran producer, director and biologist was so impacted by the film as a child—followed by meeting Mason and holding that carved canoe in his hands as an adult—that the result is Great Lakes Untamed.

Debuting Monday at 9 p.m. ET on TVO as well as on TVO’s YouTube channel, Great Lakes Untamed is a must-see three-part documentary that goes deep—sometimes literally—on the five lakes that straddle Canada and the United States.

Narrated by Allegra Fulton, Monday’s first instalment, “Source to Sea,” begins where little Paddle to the Sea did, at the headwaters of Lake Superior. It’s there that viewers are introduced to not only the water but the animals that depend on it for survival. Among them are the wolf and beaver, whose predator-prey relationship helps regulate the flow of clean water into the lakes. That clear water offers the filmmakers the opportunity to capture loons on the hunt for shiners and a few of the more than 500 documented shipwrecks claimed by the sometimes ferocious inland sea. Then it’s off to Lake Michigan, with over 12 million people surrounding its shores and the incredible Sleeping Bear Dune, a 55 km stretch of sandy wilderness created by glaciers and home to the endangered piping plover. Explorations to Lake Huron, Erie and Ontario follow.

To me, the best documentaries are ones where I am madly scrambling to write down something to look or later or grab my phone and Google it. Great Lakes Untamed had me doing that several times just in Episode 1.

“Source to Sea” is followed by “The Big Freeze,” which explores how animals, people and the landscape have been forged by snow and ice, on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET; and “Marvels and Mysteries,” which delves into how life and the landscape of the Great Lakes have adapted to changes in temperature that arrive each year, on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.

Stunningly filmed, Great Lakes Untamed is at the top of my list of favourite nature documentaries made about this county second only to The Nature of Things‘ “The Wild Canadian Year.”

Great Lakes Untamed airs Monday at 9 p.m. ET, followed by “The Big Freeze” on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET and “Marvels and Mysteries” on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on TVO, as well as on TVO’s YouTube channel.

Image courtesy of Christian Dalbec Photography.

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Featured, Unsettled

An Indigenous woman returns to her birth family in APTN’s Unsettled

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There have been many, many television series using the fish out of water scenario as a key part of its storytelling. And APTN’s Unsettled does it in a very effective way.

Airing Fridays at 8 p.m. Eastern on APTN, Unsettled follows the journey of Rayna Keetch (Cheri Maracle). A victim of the Sixties Scoop—the mass removal of Indigenous children from their families into the child welfare system—Rayna returns to her First Nation for a traditional homecoming ceremony when life throws her a curveball. Her husband, Darryl (Brandon Oakes), loses his business, car and their Toronto home. The result? A short visit turns into something more long-term for Rayna, Darryl and kids Stacia (Michaella Shannon) and Myles (Joshua Odjick).

Created, written and directed by Jennifer Podemski and Derek Diorio (Hard Rock Medical), Unsettled has been in the back of Podemski’s mind for years.

“I built this narrative around this family,” Podemski says. “Really using a lot of my own experiences and my desire to interweave and focus it with an authentic Indigenous lens.” Themes include child welfare, the aforementioned Sixties Scoop, residential schools, loss of identity and substance abuse and Podemski had a circle of advisors on-hand to make sure she got the facts correct.

A truly unique way of framing the story is through Henry (Albert Owl), Rayna’s father and the local radio DJ. Viewers listen to Henry speaking to his audience in Ojibwe, recalling the past while fuzzy, home movie-like visuals roll. It’s very well done.

“These stories are effective because they’re so rarely told,” Podemski says. “My goal was to weave these storylines, but not be an issue-driven show, be a character-driven show that weaves characters that are directly connected to these issues.”

Unsettled airs Fridays at 8 p.m. Eastern on APTN.

Images courtesy of APTN.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Season four of the award-winning series Employable Me premieres June 9 on AMI-tv

From a media release:

Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) announced today that Season four of the award-winning series Employable Me will premiere Wednesday, June 9, at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv.

Employable Me is a moving six-part documentary series featuring job seekers who are determined to show that having a physical disability or neurological condition shouldn’t make them unemployable. Seasons one, two and three of Employable Me captured Rockie Awards for Best Lifestyle Program at the Banff World Media Festival. Additionally, Season three of Employable Me won a Diversify TV Excellence Award at MIPCOM in the Representation of Disability, Non-Scripted category in 2020 and 2016.

Produced by Thomas Howe Associates Inc. (THA), Season four of Employable Me provides an honest and emotional look at the challenges Canadians of varying abilities face in the job market. Each one-hour instalment features two job seekers who are blind, partially sighted or have a neurological condition such as cerebral palsy or Autism Spectrum Disorder as they change employers’ perceptions and possibly land a coveted job.

THA followed all safety protocols as stipulated by regional and provincial health authorities during the production of Season four.

“We are excited to introduce 12 new Canadian job seekers to the Employable Me fanbase,” says John Melville, Vice-President, Content Development and Programming, AMI-tv/AMI-audio. “We challenge employers to learn from and utilize the information presented to make their workplaces truly inclusive and diverse.”

“We thank the job seekers and their families for allowing us to tell their stories,” says Thomas Howe, President and Executive Producer at THA. “It was a challenge to film during the pandemic, and we are proud of what everyone has accomplished.”

Employable Me focuses on the strengths and talents of potential employees, with help from experts in the medical and hiring fields. Season four experts and community partners include world-renowned autism specialist Dr. Wendy Roberts, motivational speaker Tracy Schmitt and March of Dimes Canada.

Among the companies participating in Season four are Loblaws, Hamilton Conservatory of Music, Rick Hansen Foundation, The Bata Shoe Museum, My Access Masks and Heritage Toronto. Additionally, digital exclusives available at AMI.ca or via the AMI-tv App for Apple and Android devices revisit past job seekers to update viewers on where they are now in their careers and offer advice on job seeking.

In keeping with AMI’s mandate of making accessible media for all Canadians, Employable Me utilizes Integrated Described Video (IDV) to make them accessible to individuals who are blind or partially sighted.

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

Season four of Employable Me premieres on Wednesday, June 9, at 8 p.m. ET. Stream past episodes and seasons on AMI.ca or via the AMI-tv App for Apple and Android devices.

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Industry News

Season 4 of TVO Original series Political Blind Date dives deep into the issues that matter most, beginning January 19

From a media release:

Season 4 of the ground-breaking TVO Original series Political Blind Date returns Tuesday, January 19, 2021 at 9 p.m. ET on TVO, tvo.org, and the TVO YouTube channel. Produced by Open Door Co. and Nomad Films, in association with TVO, this season shines a spotlight on hotly debated issues facing all Canadians in a pre- and post-COVID 19 world: hospital capacity, the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, the safety of Great Lakes water, threats to migrant labourers, religious symbols in Quebec’s public spaces, and protection of Ontario’s green spaces.

Each of the six half-hour installments matches two politicians – each with a different point of view on an important issue affecting Canadians – and sends them out into the community on a “date.” Through meaningful conversation and an effort to find common ground, each politician introduces the other to interesting people and places that best bring to life his or her side of the debate.

Season 4 of TVO Original Political Blind Date includes the following episodes, airing weekly:

January 19 – Hallway Medicine
Sara Singh, NDP MPP and Deputy Party Leader (Brampton Centre, ON), and Natalia Kusendova, Conservative MPP and emergency room nurse (Mississauga Centre, ON), kick off the season by diving into discussion concerning the challenges of hospital capacity, bed shortages, and health program cuts in Ontario, in a pre- and post-COVID climate. Will hospital capacity and services be overtaxed again and are the Ontario government’s plans to transform much needed health services going to be enough?

January 26 – Pipeline Politics
Elizabeth May, Green Party MP and Former Party Leader (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) and Cathy McLeod, Conservative MP and Shadow Minister for Crown-Indigenous Relations (Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, B.C) unwrap the pros and cons of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion and its impact on Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities across British Columbia. What does the building of a second parallel pipeline mean for those living along its route?

February 2 – Clean Water
Karen Weaver, former Mayor of Flint, Michigan (2015-2019) and Mitch Twolan, Mayor of Huron-Kinloss, ON explore how to ensure clean water for the nearly 40 million Canadians and Americans who live around the Great Lakes. They debate the Flint Water Crisis and the potential building of nuclear waste repositories near the Lake Huron shoreline in Ontario. Can politicians on both sides of the border truly listen for the future of Great Lakes water?

February 9 – Migrant Labour
Taras Natyshak, NDP MPP (Essex, ON) and Dave Epp, Conservative MP (Chatham-Kent-Leamington, ON) debate potential solutions to the problems that face the migrant labour population in Southwestern Ontario, where workers have been exposed to COVID-19 in living conditions that some critics call inhumane. Can politicians share empathy for both foreign workers and Canadian farmers to find real solutions?

February 16 – Religious Symbols
Michael Coteau, Liberal MPP (Don Valley East, ON) and Christopher Skeete, Coalition Avenir Québec MLA (Sainte-Rose, Québec) face off about Bill 21, the law in Québec that bans public servants (eg.judges, police officers, teachers) from wearing religious symbols while carrying out their duties. Is Bill 21 a human rights infringement or is it a continuation of Quebec’s evolution as a secular society free of religion in public life?

February 23 – Cities and the Environment
Andrea Khanjin, Conservative MPP and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (Barrie-Innisfil, ON) and Jennifer McKelvie, Toronto City Councillor (Scarborough-Rouge Park, ON) review the Ontario government’s environmental record and discuss what needs to be done to preserve green spaces in Toronto and across Ontario. Can governments work together to find the right balance between economic growth and responsible environmental stewardship?

Political Blind Date is produced by Open Door Co. and Nomad Films, in association with TVO. Creator and Executive Producer is Tom Powers of Open Door Co., alongside Executive Producer, Writer, and Director Mark Johnston and Executive and Series Producer Amanda Handy of Nomad Films. From TVO, Jane Jankovic is Executive Producer of Documentaries, Linda Fong is Independent Production Officer, and John Ferri is Vice President of Current Affairs and Documentaries.

6 x 28 min episodes broadcast each Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET, beginning January 19.

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