Link: Say Yes to the Dress and the glory of frock opera

From John Doyle:

Now me, I haven’t been to a wedding in years. But I do enjoy the bridal shopping experience every week.

It is totally true. On a regular evening when I’ve done the dishes and finished the ironing, I’ll relax with an episode of Say Yes to the Dress. (Sometimes it’s Four Weddings Canada, which is outrageous, simmering with snark, but that’s another story.) The SYTTD franchise is one of reality television’s great triumphs. There’s a genius to it. Continue reading.

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Tonight: Love it or List it Vancouver, Property Brothers

Love it or List it Vancouver, W Network
It’s up to Jillian Harris (formerly of The Bachelorette Season V, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) to revive that love and put a stop to the wandering eyes of our homeowners by delivering a show-stopping renovation. Meanwhile, West Coast realtor Todd Talbot is determined to get homeowners to relocate by dangling temptation right in front of them with dreamy homes on the market. Every episode takes viewers on an emotional rollercoaster as Jillian and Todd implement their plans to battle it out for the homeowners’ allegiance. The stakes are high as guests weigh the financial and emotional decisions of buying a new home or staying in the renovated one—will they love it enough to stay or is it time to list?

Property Brothers, W Network
Real estate agent Drew Scott and his twin brother, contractor Jonathan Scott star in the popular series Property Brothers. This one-hour real estate/home renovation series gets buyers into their dream homes without busting their budget. The series follows Drew and Jonathan as they help couples find, buy and transform extreme fixer-uppers into the ultimate dream home. Each week, with the help of CGI technology, the brothers show buyers the underlying potential in two rundown properties. Once the clients choose the property they like best, Drew begins negotiating the purchase price while Jonathan starts planning the transformation.

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Danielle Graham Announced as New Co-Anchor of CTV’s ETALK

bell_media

From a media release:

New year, new ETALK! CTV announced today that Danielle Graham is the new Co-Anchor of ETALK, Canada’s most-watched entertainment news program. Formerly an ETALK senior reporter, Graham begins her new role alongside Anchor Ben Mulroney tonight, as they get ready to kick off ETALK’s exclusive awards season coverage. Graham will be front and centre for all the action with the biggest stars in the world, starting with THE 72nd ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE® AWARDS, airing live across the country Sunday, Jan. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CTV (visit CTV.ca to confirm local listings). ETALK’s Graham will be positioned alongside Mulroney as the only Canadian outlet to have an exclusive platform on one of the biggest red carpets of the year.

With close to a decade of national TV experience, Danielle Graham’s charming personality has put her face- to-face with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, covering high-profile events both here at home, and around the world. In recent years, Graham has interviewed the likes of Ben Affleck, James Franco, Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Beyoncé Knowles, and most recently Taylor Swift. Graham has also made her mark on red carpets around the world including the Toronto International Film Festival® (TIFF), Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, Elton John’s annual post-Oscar® bash, and THE 65th PRIMETIME EMMY®AWARDS. Graham was also the first ETALK reporter to go on the road with the CTV smash-hit THE AMAZING RACE CANADA during its inaugural season, and co-hosted THE AMAZING RACE CANADA after-show, INSIDE THE RACE.

Graham got her start in broadcasting in 2001 working at various broadcasters before making her on-camera debut on YTV’s weekly music countdown show THE HIT LIST prior to joining Bell Media in 2005 as an entertainment reporter for STAR! DAILY. She officially joined the ETALK team in 2007 as a reporter, and was promoted to Senior Reporter in 2013. Born and raised in Guelph, Ontario, Danielle Graham graduated from Seneca College with a diploma in Radio and Television Broadcasting.

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Harris and Talbot battle budgets and property costs on Love It Or List It Vancouver

Todd Talbot wants to go on the record with a pitch for a new series starring he and Jillian Harris for W Network. He even leans in close so my iPhone records it loud and clear.

“I think there is a better show out there with the stuff that hasn’t aired,” he says with a mischievous smile. “We have been gunning for it. For the record, whoever is listening, we’re game!”

In the meantime, the duo will stick with the formula that has made them household names with the W Network crowd, Love It Or List It Vancouver, returning tonight with a new season. Once again, Harris and Talbot descend on Vancouver homeowners who are looking for a major change. Will they heed Harris’ advice and renovate their family home or will they side with Talbot and sell the joint and find a new abode? While the structure of Love It Or List It Vancouver hasn’t changed, Harris says the flavour and tone certainly has.

“Now that we kind of have a grasp on things this is more organic and the camera style is looser. I think people are going to be able to relate to it even more,” she says. “The first two seasons we were trying to figure out the formula.”

“I’ve been having to deal with you,” Talbot counters to his co-star. “It’s taken me a year to do that!” The snappy back and forth between  the feisty Harris and acerbic Talbot is entertaining as heck, and serves as a balance to the stresses of watching homeowners agonize over staying put or moving somewhere new. Those stresses are shared by interior designer Harris and real estate agent Talbot, who must struggle within the confines of limited renovation budgets (she) or an exploding housing market driving more and more Vancouverites to the suburbs (he).

“It has gotten ridiculously expensive to live in Vancouver,” Talbot admits. “You almost become numb to the pricing. You don’t even bat an eye at a million dollars. The biggest challenge is faced by those families with young kids who are moving out of their condo and into a detached house because those homes have skyrocketed in price. They want to move out of the densified downtown and into a family neighbourhood and the cost barrier there is ridiculously high.”

The solution? Income suites in homes and laneway housing, the former of which aren’t always legal and the latter a mini-house built where a garage used to be on a century-home’s property. Or people are staying put and renovating. Enter Harris, who has her own challenges to face.

“I think a lot of people come on the show because they want to renovate,” she says. “But there is only so much that I can do with their limited existing space, so they move.”

“My biggest challenge this season are the fricking character homes,” she continues. “The homeowners want to have them renovated and sometimes it’s just cheaper to knock them down and start over again. We have so many off-camera conversations with the homeowners to tell them that, and they don’t care. They want us to renovate.”

Sounds like just the sort of stuff we’d love to see on the proposed show Talbot is hoping for.

Love It Or List It Vancouver returns Monday at 10 p.m. ET on W Network.

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Review: Lost Girl’s lucky day

Things are certainly heating up on Lost Girl—and I don’t just mean that surprise hook-up between Bo and Tamsin, although it does feel like this week’s biggest development. Rookie Blue’s Noam Jenkins made his first move as a resuscitated corpse, bringing the ominous words “beginning and end” to screens and teasing something cataclysmic in the offing.

Considering how long things between Bo and Tamsin have remained at the casually teasing phase, I was pretty stunned to see Tamsin finally make a bold move—and, admittedly, even more surprised to see Bo, after a moment’s hesitation, opt for the second of Tamsin’s gifts. Maybe it’s because their friendship has been so rocky, or maybe because I was sort of digging the banter-creating tension between them as they started working together, but I’m not entirely sure how I feel about these two launching into something that looks like more than a chi-swapping fling.

I guess that for all the hints and chemistry between the two, I’ve always assumed Lost Girl would head to some kind of resolution involving the Bo/Lauren/Dyson triangle—though maybe this move is suggesting the show is considering something a bit less predictable for our loving fae and her friends. Either way, it gave Bo someone to confide in, and I can’t think of anyone who would be more understanding about Bo’s need to separate herself from her father’s legacy than Tamsin.

And while I’m certain that whatever’s brewing with Lauren and Dyson’s elevator crash case is closely tied to Bo’s father—both did, after all, begin with a trip to Hell and one cryptically named candle—I’m guessing that final shot of Horatio, a.k.a. the recently-deceased Kevin Brown means solving the elevator crash might take priority over that rune-covered Jack-in-a-box present from daddy dearest.

It’s certainly more pressing for the fae world now that their signatures—and powers—have been taken from the safety of Trick’s lair and are now being used by Kevin, and, presumably, that mysterious blonde woman responsible for his death, to hunt for whatever fae they need to take out (or collect pieces from). With the oracles now blind to any other visions, there’s no one to warn Bo and the rest about what’s coming, or what it may want from the rest of the fae.

Except maybe Dyson’s new kid, Mark, if he somehow manages to get over being a ridiculous stereotype of a teenage brat in time. Right now it seems like he’s on his way to being recruited to the Dark side—a process Dyson should probably explain to him a bit more clearly, and soon. Because while the kid’s aware his new friend stole the book, he doesn’t seem to have any idea what that means, or why it’s important. And sure, he’s dreaming Bo’s dream of being unaligned, but right now I don’t think he’s savvy enough to pull that off. Especially since Vex seems to be the only friend he’s capable of making, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out Vex is the one who orchestrated the whole hook up in the first place. Mark’s recklessness may have been cute enough for Bo last week, but it’s quickly turning into something dangerous. And if Dyson doesn’t step it up in the paternity department soon, there may be more problems than a few broken pint glasses.

And as fun as it was to watch Tamsin deal with Bo’s slow transformation into a kitten (note: a napkin is not a suitable cover for the sudden appearance of paws), or to at least watch Anna Silk take up residence in the soothing confines of a cardboard box, I’m still itching to make a bit more progress on what the hell (pun intended) is going on with, well, everything. Or at least see the team start to connect a couple of the dots and give us something a bit more substantial to speculate with.

Lost Girl airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Showcase.

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