Tag Archives: W Network

Bachelor Canada, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

W Network Announces First Ever Season of The Bachelorette Canada

From a media release:

Corus Entertainment’s W Network announced today that it is commissioning The Bachelorette Canada (11×90/1×60). The series from Good Human Productions Inc. is the first ever Canadian version of the perennially successful The Bachelorette franchise from Warner Horizon Television that originated on ABC in the U.S. The Bachelorette Canada commences casting for potential bachelors on Wednesday, November 18, and interested applicants can apply online or nominate someone they know here or by visiting the casting calls across Canada in January 2016. Canada’s first ever Bachelorette will be announced in the coming months and The Bachelorette Canada will premiere next fall on W Network.

Canadians that nominate someone they know as a bachelor will be entered into W Network’s online contest for a chance to win an all-expense paid trip for 2 to Vancouver and VIP passes to the live tapings of The Bachelorette Canada: The Men Tell All and The Bachelorette Canada: After The Final Rose specials. Nominate someone you know here.

In the Canadian version of this smash-hit reality series, Canada’s most eligible bachelorette is in search of the man of her dreams – and hopefully her groom-to-be. The Canadian Bachelorette will search for love as 20 men do whatever it takes to win her heart. The male suitors compete for the Bachelorette’s affection via individual and group dates involving local and far-flung romantic encounters and adventures. As the Bachelorette narrows the field and the number of men dwindles, romance and tensions will rise. Ultimately, she will choose the one man with whom she wants to spend the rest of her life.

The Bachelorette Canada is produced by Good Human Productions Inc. From Good Human Productions, Claire Freehand serves as Executive Producer and Keely Booth is Showrunner. For Corus Entertainment, John MacDonald is the Executive Vice President of Television and Head of Women’s and Family Television and Maria Farano is Director of Original Programming for Women’s and Family Television. The series is based on the U.S. format created by Mike Fleiss and produced by Next Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Television. Sales of the format are handled by Warner Bros. International Television Production.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Hockey Wives skate to Season 2 for W Network

A lot of pressure is put on NHL players. They’re paid to score—or stop—goals, expensive commodities that can suffer a career-ending injury or be traded to a team on the other side of the country. It’s a stress-filled, sometimes cruel sport.

But let’s not forget the wives, girlfriends and children behind the scenes whose lives are affected just as much as the players. Returning Wednesday on W Network, Season 2 of Hockey Wives follows 11 ladies who call NHL players their husband, fiancé or boyfriend.

“Some of the girls from Season 1 were throwing my name around to the producers and told me how much fun they had,” says show newbie Angela Price. “I went back and forth with the producers before finally saying yes.” Wife of Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price, Wednesday’s return introduces viewers to the affable young couple away from the ice, participating in photo ops at their charity, the Breakfast Club of Canada. Baby talk is front and centre; cameras capture Angela detailing how the pair are trying to get pregnant.

Back for Season 2—alongside Keshia Chanté, Rhianna Weaver, Kodette LaBarbera, Tiffany Parros, Noureen DeWulf, Paige Getzlaf, Taylor Winnick, Ashley Booth and Maripier Morin—is Martine Forget, wife of Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier. She reveals her sophomore season storyline is filled by footage of her raising their infant son, Tyler, and planning the couple’s wedding.

Price and Forget admit not every part of their lives was recorded for Hockey Wives; the Prices’ home life hasn’t been documented and Forget nixed a dinner out in Toronto.

“They asked Jonathan and I to go out for dinner,” she recalls. “But dinner in Toronto, with the cameras, is just too much. With the cameras there’s just so much attention, so we said no.” Forget adds that, with the shaky start the Maple Leafs have had, her hubby would rather concentrate on his game than reality TV cameras.

It’s easy, in this social media-obsessed world, to dismiss the ladies as women swanning around mansions waiting for a paycheque to be cashed. Hockey Wives is an eye-opener. Sure, there are high-profile events to attend and swank dinners on the calendar, but so is everyday stuff like laundry, paying bills, helping with homework, changing dirty diapers or holding down a job. Throw in a partner who is away playing hockey much of the year and you’ve got recipe for disaster.

“I want viewers to understand that I’m a mom going back to work and that I’m not at home spending money all the time,” says Forget.

“There are so many different varieties of lifestyles in hockey,” Price says. “I’m excited for people to see that Carey and I live a very similar lifestyle to what we did before he became a professional hockey player and we find pleasure in doing the same things we’ve always done.”

Hockey Wives airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on W Network.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Dave Salmoni to host S2 of Game of Homes for W Network; Colin & Justin resident judges

From a media release:

W Network’s epic original production Game of Homes (8×60) is pleased to announce experienced television host and frequent late-night guest Dave Salmoni(Expedition Impossible, appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno) as series host and dynamic interior design duo Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan (Colin and Justin’s Home Heist, Colin & Justin’s Cabin Pressure) as the resident judges. Produced by Great Pacific Mediain association with W Network, Game of Homes Season 2 is currently in production in Toronto and is set to premiere on W Network in Spring 2016.

Multi-talented Sarnia, Ontario native Dave Salmoni is an internationally recognized on-air television host, animal trainer, and television producer. He is best known as the host of the Mark Burnett reality series Expedition Impossible on ABC, as the host of several television documentary series on Animal Planet and Discovery Channel US including Deadly Islands and Rogue Nature, and for his animal handling guest spots on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Chelsea Lately and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, to name a few. He is a large predator expert, with a specialty in re-wilding captive-born tigers and lions. He has survived shark and lion attacks and has his own production company based in South Africa that specializes in wildlife films. Taking over the reins from former host and Entertainment Tonight correspondent, Cameron Mathison, Salmoni goes from taking care of giant tigers to taking care of tired and worn out renovation teams. Salmoni brings a passion for renovation and the expertise he has learned from his wife, who is an accomplished interior designer.

As host of Game of Homes, Salmoni guides four teams of skilled amateur home renovators as they compete for the chance to trade their skills for the prize of a lifetime – their own home and a plot of land to put it on. The teams save rundown houses from the wrecking ball and week-by-week, revive them into dream homes, one room at a time. Each team works side-by-side, around the clock, to completely transform these dumps into show homes – while also living in them through the entire renovation. They will battle small budgets, tight deadlines, cramped quarters and each other for a chance to win a home and change their lives forever.

Game_Homes2

Previous guest judges on Game of Homes Season 1, Colin and Justin return as resident judges this season. Well-known interior designers, style commentators, Hollywood celebrity interviewers and all round lifestyle gurus who hail from Glasgow, Scotland, the duo have hosted 11 television series that air worldwide, from the BBC show Million Pound Property Experiment and ITV’s The 60 Minute Makeover to Colin and Justin’s Home Heist (HGTV) and Colin & Justin’s Cabin Pressure (Cottage Life). The pair are resident design experts on City TV’s Cityline and appear regularly on chat shows in Canada and the UK. They are guest judges on The Block, Australia’s biggest property show and designers on The Living Room, also in Australia. Their newspaper columns appear weekly in the Toronto Sun, 24 Hours Toronto, 24 Hours Vancouver and the London Free Press. They contribute to both the Huffington Post Canada and Design Sponge, writing décor and lifestyle features.

Bringing that expertise to the series, in each episode of Game of Homes, Colin and Justin vote for their favourite room renovations based on design and workmanship, working alongside a stellar cast of celebrity guest judges. In the finale, in addition to the judges, the public also casts their votes, and in the dramatic and life-changing conclusion, the winning team is awarded their spectacular new home.

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Featured

Preview: Hockey Wives score for W Network

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“If Brandon cheated on me, I would cut his balls off, cook them and make him eat them.” This is what would befall Montreal Canadiens right winger Brandon Prust if he ever cheated on his girlfriend, Marpier Morin.

Morin’s threat is just a sample of the various bon mots and personalities uncovered in the first episode of Hockey Wives, debuting Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on W Network. The reality show follows 10 girlfriends and wives of NHL hockey players and coaches who are shown doing the everyday things that other married women do, like shop, take care of kids or carry on a career. Unlike most married women, however, these gals live in an environment where an injury to their partner can mean the end to a steady paycheque or a trade equals picking up their entire lives and moving somewhere else.

For someone like Noureen DeWulf—betrothed to Vancouver Canucks net minder Ryan Miller—it equals a couple of unknowns. Pregnant with their first child, DeWulf is unsure whether to move to Vancouver to be with her man or stay in Los Angeles and continue her acting career.

For Brijet Whitney—wife of recently retired player Ray—it means a wholesale upheaval in her life. The mother of three has her husband home for the first time in over two decades and worries they’ll become a statistic of hockey couples who divorce after the player hangs up his skates for good. Brijet is clearly the most grounded of all the wives featured in Episode 1; she’s been through the ups and downs of an NHL career and knows it can be taken away in a flash.

Hockey Wives isn’t my cup of television tea, but I certainly see the allure. The opportunity to tune in and see how these ladies get on with organizing the home and kids while their pro athlete partners are away is fascinating stuff. Even the group get-togethers—which I’m sure were set up by producers and fuelled with booze in hopes of fireworks going off—are entertaining, if not a little tame.

Hockey Wives airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on W Network.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Interview: Cameron Mathison’s Game of Homes giveaway

It’s perhaps the coolest name ever devised for a competition show. It’s certainly one of the biggest giveaways in Canadian television.

Cameron Mathison hosts W Network’s impressively-titled Game of Homes (we’re pretty sure they cleared it with HBO), a series that pits teams of amateur home renovators against each other for the ultimate prize: a house with a chunk of land to put it on.

Debuting Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT, the Sarnia, Ont., born, former All My Children actor turned Good Morning America and Entertainment Tonight contributor challenges four couples to renovate a run-down home. Every week finds the couples fixing up one room in the home before they’re judged by folks like Jillian Harris and Todd Talbot from Love It Or List It Vancouver, Jonathan and Drew Scott, or Colin & Justin. One team per week pockets a prize for best room reno. In the finale, the judges weigh in on who they think deserve to win before viewers vote too. The winning pair not only win the house they renovated but are awarded a piece of Vancouver property to put it on.

How did you get involved in Game of Homes?
It’s funny, I was talking to my agent about this. I went to McGill where I majored in structural engineering and that was something I was going to do with my buddy, who was a designer. I was talking to my agent about that and, literally, the next day Game of Homes called and asked me to send them a tape. It’s something that just came my way that happens sometimes.

With your background, did part of you want to run over and take over the renovations from the competitors?
Like, a large part. Like, 95 per cent of me wanted to get in there either with my two cents or to get my hands dirty. To the point where I have actually pitched to turn the tables on the host of Game of Homes and I’ll do my own transformations with some twists and turns. That’s all I can say. [Note: that project is Cameron’s House Rules, debuting Tuesday on W Network’s YouTube page.]

I couldn’t wait to get to set every day and see what they had done. The challenges are tough, but they do a phenomenal job. I saw the job on paper and thought it was amazing but I wondered how the teams would be able to pull it off and they do.

W Network

The teaser was amazing, showing the four homes being brought on barges to sit on a Vancouver pier while the competition was going on. They have generators for the tools, but they don’t have heat and plumbing, do they?
No heat, no plumbing. It’s tricky.

Are they shown how to do the work beforehand?
Each team has a contractor working with them, but every decision is driven by the team. The contractor will help them with aspects that might be too technical. It depends.

Is there anything that surprised you about the show or the competitors as production rolled?
I think the prize is pretty amazing. A house and property in a city where that’s at a premium? That said, every week there are amazing prizes. Trips to Paris, trips to Japan, Caribbean cruises, spa weeks, it’s out of control. And yet, one of the most surprising things is that the teams became very, very close and were rooting for each other. It was really touching and fun to watch.

There must have been a lot of tears of frustration too. Lack of sleep!
Sleep deprivation was a big one. I was host and couples’ therapist. I had to come in and say, ‘Come on guys, you have to compromise and communicate to get through this.’ A lot of tears shed and animosity against the guest judges. It was so hard to announce a weekly winner because everyone wanted it so badly and no one was going home. Everyone was in it until the very end.

Game of Homes airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on W Network.

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