Sad news for fans of Gisèle Corinthios: the host of Gisèle’s Big Backyard is no longer with TVO. As reported back in April, the publicly funded provincial channel had cancelled production of program block, impacting six employees.
TVO confirmed on Friday that Corinthios was one of those impacted.
“TVO receives a fixed transfer from the province. Every year, our $40 million transfer gets relatively smaller as inflation allows it to buy less and less. With limited resources that effectively decline each year, TVO has to reduce costs regularly,” the channel said in a statement.
“With 14 years of production and 800 segments of Gisèle’s Big Backyard in our archive, the two-to-four year old pre-school audience will continue to enjoy GBB’s interstitial content for years to come. Since the pre-school audience turns over every two years, there is a large enough catalogue to maintain high quality service without producing new episodes. Older children require a more interactive experience to engage them, which is why TVO offers a live call-in experience with The Space weekday afternoons.”
The network is touting new original content, including mPower, a new math online in-class resource for kindergarten to Grade 6 and Climate Watch, a look at how climate change is becoming an increasing local issue.
Corinthios had been with TVO since 1998, when she became host of The Nook, which evolved into Gisèle’s Big Backyard.
