Like so many Canadian television personalities, freewheeling SportsCentre hosts Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole are moving south of the border. Apparently, after a Wall Street Journal article alerted Fox Sports execs to Onrait and O’Toole’s comedic antics and on-screen chemistry, the pair landed a gig with a new show running on the network nightly from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Onrait and O’Toole’s final appearance at TSN is in late June, giving their legion of fans, including Stephen Harper, less than two months to soak in as much wise-cracking hilarity as possible. And here we were just getting used to Don Cherry and Ron MacLean’s big seat swap. [TSN]
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Conrad Black is hosting a new television show called Zoomer. We’re very excited
We knew Conrad Black had big plans for his release from prison. What we didn’t know is that they involved co-hosting a weekly television show for viewers 45 and up (but, really, of course Conrad Black is hosting a TV show!). The Zoomer—Television For Boomers With Zip begins airing in late spring on VisionTV, and the early details suggest the hour-long show is going to be something a spectacle. Below, the five things we’re most gleefully looking forward to watching.
Send in the Clowns: behind the desk with SportsCentre’s Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole
Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole, the wildly popular, wise-cracking hosts of TSN’s SportsCentre, can’t stop laughing—at fumbling athletes, at ranting coaches and especially at their own jokes
Onrait (left) and O’Toole are watched by two million viewers every week
In 2002, Jay Onrait was hired to co-host TSN’s late-night edition of SportsCentre. The broadcast, which airs after the night’s big games and matches, is the channel’s highest-profile slot. Onrait came with TV hosting experience and an encyclopedic sports mind. He was nevertheless an unusual choice: he’s a lanky joker with a background in stand-up comedy, the sort of guy who can’t resist contorting his face to make an audience laugh. He worships early David Letterman, especially his cheap gags, like when he’d chuck a watermelon off the roof. That sort of thing, he assumed, wouldn’t fly at TSN, where sports stats are analyzed with utmost seriousness.
Bell stakes its claim for downtown Toronto condo owners with big-time cable discounts
A high-stakes turf war is heating up between Rogers and Bell over the chance to provide television to Toronto’s ever-growing ranks of downtown condo-dwellers. For decades, bylaws prohibiting satellite dishes on condo balconies prevented Bell from selling its satellite TV in high-rises, leaving Rogers to sign exclusive deals with developers. But the landscape has changed: Rogers’ deals are now expiring and, with Fibe TV, Bell has traded in ugly satellites for discreet fiber optics cable. The company recently made its first major play, offering steep discounts on TV and PVR rentals (but buyer beware: the ultra-low rates expire after a year, and customers must also sign up for home phone and internet). Bell has even taken the unprecedented step of running fiber into single suites—some private residences at the Four Seasons are on Fibe—setting the precedent for a gritty customer-by-customer battle between it and Rogers. And here we thought the competitors were learning to play nice. [Globe and Mail]
Dear Urban Diplomat: Do television crews have the right to stop traffic on my street?
(Image: torontocitylife)
Dear Urban Diplomat, Read the rest of this entry »
An episode of Nikita is being filmed outside my condo. Every morning for the last few days, the crew has stopped traffic until the take wraps—which feels like an eternity when I’m trying to get to work. It’s absurd that my day is interrupted for a TV show. Can I just drive past the woman with the headset next time? What authority does she have to stop me?
—Roadblocked, Corktown
The original cast of The Wiggles is calling it quits, but they’re coming to Toronto to say goodbye
People with kids will know who The Wiggles are, but for anyone who is unfamiliar, they’re a mega-popular Australian children’s music group who have been around for 21 years (so, Barney with an Australian accent). Of the four original members, three—Greg Page, Jeff Fatt and Murray Cook—are retiring from the group and will be replaced. To say goodbye, the foursome is setting off on a farewell tour that will stop in Toronto on October 5 and 6 at Ricoh Coliseum (tickets go on sale August 13 through Ticketmaster). The lucky children who get tickets to this event are probably going to also want T-shirts, hats and cotton candy, so perhaps now is the time to start setting aside a nest egg.
Spotlight: Patrick J. Adams gets his breakout role as a bogus lawyer on the hit series Suits
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Before Suits debuted last year on the tiny USA Network, it sounded like every other legal dramedy with impossibly good-looking lawyers sassing judges and having confrontations in front of floor-to-ceiling windows. That assessment wasn’t entirely off the mark: Suits is set in a stylish Manhattan firm (though shot in Toronto) and features an easy-on-the-eyes cast, including its boyishly handsome star Patrick J. Adams. But the show, which recently began its second season, quickly distinguished itself from the clones with its snappy pacing and sharp dialogue, and became a sleeper hit. The Toronto-born Adams plays the dishy and disheveled anti-hero, Mike Ross, a low-level con artist who stumbles into a job as an associate, despite having no law degree, after impressing the firm’s star litigator with his photographic memory and self-taught mastery of legalese. (TV rules of plausibility are in effect.) Adams brings nuance to the role of the savant hustler. Ross can be ruthless, and yet vulnerable—a mere guppy in a sea of Armani-clad sharks. Earlier this year, he nabbed a Screen Actors Guild nomination for best actor in a drama series, which pitted him against award heavyweights like Bryan Cranston (for Breaking Bad) and Steve Buscemi (who won for Boardwalk Empire). For the 30-year-old Adams, who spent a decade stuck in Hollywood’s revolving door of guest spots and doomed pilots, landing Suits has meant a huge leap in name recognition. It’s the breakout moment actors dream of, and almost as unlikely as, say, stumbling into a job as a lawyer without a law degree.
CBC wins the domestic rights for 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games, saving Canadians from having to watch NBC
(Image: Canadian Olympic Committee)
After much uncertainty and several failed bids, CBC has wrangled the TV, radio and Internet rights for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. That’s a relief, considering there was a chance Canadians would be stuck watching the (very unpopular) NBC broadcasts after the International Olympic Committee shut down a pair of joint bids between CBC and Bell Media, and Rogers Communications withdrew from the race in September 2011. The details of how much CBC paid have not yet been released, but the rights for the Vancouver and London games cost a Bell-CTV-Rogers consortium $153 million. Not chump change. [CBC]
The L.A. Complex, episode 3: ghost of an ex-gay lover and a sex-free birthday
This week’s episode of The L.A. Complex takes a turn for the surreal as extended dream sequences, visions of tormented ex-lovers and a show-within-a-show hospital killing spree play with our expectations of reality. Find out who left the Deluxe broken-hearted and who is just broken after the jump.
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Olympics coverage showdown: CTV is trumping NBC in viewer satisfaction
An Ottawa-based media monitoring company combed through 50,000 tweets to gauge how Canada’s television coverage stacks up against the U.S.’s—and, in terms of viewer satisfaction, things are looking bad for the Americans. Media Miser looked at tweets with Olympic-themed hashtags made during the first three days of the London games; of those referencing Canada’s broadcaster, CTV, about half were positive, while a whopping 83% of tweets related to NBC, America’s lone holder of Olympic coverage rights, were disparaging. Use of the hashtag #nbcfail surged as disgruntled NBC watchers lambasted the lack of live event coverage, oddly timed cuts to commercials and irritating commentary, as well as some accidental spoilers and a host of other problems. This makes the uncertainty over Canada’s domestic media rights to the next few Olympics all the more alarming. Sure, CTV’s not perfect, but we really don’t relish the thought of Ryan Seacrest as our guide to the games. [Globe and Mail]
RIM finally releases a movie app for the PlayBook
(Image: screenshot from BlackBerry App World)
Research in Motion launched the Canadian version of its PlayBook video store app yesterday, which means the growing contingent of Canadians who own the tablet can, at long last, rent and buy movies and television shows. The app functions similarly to Apple’s iTunes store, allowing users to stream trailers for free and charging roughly $5 to rent a current release blockbuster (users don’t even have to wait for the download to finish before starting to watch). The video library comes a few months after RIM launched a long-awaited upgrade with email and calendar apps. We’d say the PlayBook is finally getting close to what techies had hoped for when it came out last year. [Globe and Mail]
Michael J. Fox, Will Arnett and Lorne Michaels among Canadians receiving 2012 Emmy nominations
The 2012 prime time Emmy nominations list is full of Canadians: Michael J. Fox is up for Outstanding Guest Actor for his recurring role on The Good Wife; Rosedale-raised Will Arnett received a nod for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy for his work on 30 Rock; and Toronto-born SNL creator Lorne Michaels is up for a writing award. There also appears to be an appetite for children’s programming that frankly discusses teen issues, like being transgendered or a teen mom who is an aspiring pop singer, because for the second year in a row, Degrassi is nominated in the Outstanding Children’s Program category. [Globe and Mail]
The L.A. Complex, episode 1: religion, psychiatry and discovery
We’re back! Our favourite drama about struggling Canadians navigating Hollywood has been renewed for another season on MuchMusic—and we’re ready for the denizens of the Deluxe to get back to their usual tricks of illicit sex and blind ambition. The details on the season opener after the jump (spoiler: Alan Thicke has joined the cast!).
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Five things we learned about Alison Pill, including how she owns a headshot of Aaron Sorkin
Alison Pill (Image: Gage Skidmore)
Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom was recently picked up for a second season, and Vulture sat down with Toronto-bred actress Alison Pill to discuss how she’s dealing with Sorkinisms, and how she’s faring with planning her wedding to Jay Baruchel. Here are five things we learned about the young up-and-comer:
1. She still values physical media Read the rest of this entry »
She didn’t own a television when she lived in New York City, but she does admit that she has watched cable news. “I was more reading papers, reading magazines; I’m much more print media,” she says.
Chaz Bono to play…Chaz Bono on Degrassi
Chaz Bono is in town and has been spotted on the set of Toronto’s Degrassi, filming an episode that will air this fall. Bono will play himself in the role of a celebrity judge for a competition at the show’s namesake high school. After a run-in with the cast at the 2011 Emmy Awards, Bono showed interest in appearing on the Canadian drama. Bono, a transgender activist working with Transforming Family, told People that Adam’s storyline (Adam is a transgender character) is particularly important to him: “It means more transgender representation in the pop culture, and it also sends the message to trans teens that they are not alone in their struggles.” Read the entire story [People] »
