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TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Discovery launches colossal fall season during month-long free preview beginning October 10

From a media release:

Gripping roadside rescue operations, thrilling train adventures, fearless firefighting heroes, and thought-provoking insights into hate and the human experience are all part of a jam-packed lineup of hit series this fall on Discovery, and everyone has a chance to check it out.

On the heels of Discovery’s free preview, the channel also announced today new seasons of two marquee Canadian original series. Continuing its reign as Discovery’s most-watched series, HIGHWAY THRU HELL begins production on Season 9 this fall. Discovery’s Exploration Production Inc. (EPI) is also currently in production on a fourth season of MIGHTY TRAINS, with filming taking place in exotic locations around the world including Peru, Japan, Serbia, and more.

Below is a closer look at Discovery’s new and returning programming highlights during the free preview. All programming is subject to change (visit Discovery.ca to confirm local broadcast times and to view the full schedule).

HIGHWAY THRU HELL, Season 8
Premieres Monday, October 7 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT (new day and time) and continues with all-new episodes during the free preview

  • Discovery’s smash-hit original Canadian series returns for another epic season, with 17 all-new episodes following the hardworking and heroic heavy recovery operators who fight to keep the roads open through British Columbia’s Coquihalla and Cascade mountains. This season, Jamie Davis continues to lean on his classic collection of “old iron” to tackle some of the toughest recoveries, but his crew is buzzing with excitement at the prospect of something shiny and new coming to the yard. Change is also in the air for lead-operator Colin Mclean, when developments in his personal life lead him to question his future in the tow business. Then, 100 kilometres north of Hope, B.C., Reliable Towing’s resilience is tested like never before when one of their own is caught up in a terrifying event on the highway. Quiring Towing’s Al Quiring and Gord Boyd tackle some of the heaviest off-road jobs imaginable, while down in the Fraser Valley at Aggressive Towing, Jamie’s brother Jason and his top man Chris ‘Merv’ Mervyn’s modern rotators are in high demand. Just down the road, 63-year-old heavy rescue legend Ken Duperon continues to lead Mission Towing, but when he’s struck down by an urgent medical crisis, his son-in-law and lead-driver Dylan Greenwood must step up. HIGHWAY THRU HELL marks its milestone 100th episode this season, before just-announced Season 9 begins production.

MIGHTY TRAINS, Season 3
Premieres Sunday, October 13 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT

  • Host Teddy Wilson whisks viewers around the world to witness the inner workings of six exceptional trains and their scenic locomotive routes. This season, Teddy rolls along Norway’s scenic Bergen Line, and uncovers how some of the fastest trains in the world are built at an Italian train company owned by the chairman of Ferrari. Then, it’s off to the Indian Pacific train for a bucket-list journey across southern Australia, and on to the colourful trains of the Thailand State Railway to traverse beautiful but deadly landscapes. This season’s adventures are capped off by a trip through historic routes and impressive scenery aboard South Africa’s most luxurious train, the Pride of Africa, and a wintery journey aboard Switzerland’s Bernina Express, one of the most beautiful train trips on earth. Produced by Discovery’s Exploration Production Inc. (EPI), MIGHTY TRAINS is set to air in more than 100 countries around the world, spanning the U.K., Germany, Australia, France, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and throughout Asia, with Season 4 now in production.

HITLER’S MOST WANTED
Premieres Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT

  • This original Canadian docuseries presents a new perspective on how and why a generation of men and women living in a European society became the leaders of one of the most terrifying regimes of all time, responsible for starting a world war that resulted in more than 60 million deaths. Visiting the villages and towns where these elite Nazi leaders grew up, as well as the sites of their worst atrocities, dedicated young historian James Ellis explores the defining moments which transformed everyday Germans into mass murderers. As knowledge of the Third Reich recedes from society’s collective memory, this docu-series examines the key personalities of the Third Reich to determine what happened and ensure that the lessons of history are never forgotten.

HELLFIRE HEROES, Season 2
Premieres Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT

  • In the coastal towns, wildlands, and prairies of the Canadian West, there lives a special breed of firefighter. These are the men and women who serve and protect the communities in which they live with bravery and devotion. The stress is high and there’s no room for error as each fire department responds to a relentless battery of emergency calls. With remote and unmarked roads, fast-flowing rivers, roaming wildlife, and a steady stream of transport trucks and freight trains barreling through their towns, these firefighting teams face life-altering challenges on a daily basis. Returning with a fresh batch of eight episodes, Season 2 of this Discovery original series sees the return of Chief Albert Bahri and Chief Jamie Coutts from Northern Alberta, as well as two new fire departments from Port Alberni, British Columbia and Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
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Industry News

Link: Molly’s Reach, the iconic restaurant from The Beachcombers, goes up for sale

From Jennifer Van Evra of the CBC:

Link: Molly’s Reach, the iconic restaurant from The Beachcombers, goes up for sale
Molly’s Reach, the iconic restaurant from the classic Canadian TV show The Beachcombers, is up for sale.

Located in Gibsons on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, roughly 40 minutes by ferry from West Vancouver, the restaurant has been a top tourist attraction for decades, drawing fans of the show from around the world. Continue reading.

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Children's Programming, Featured, Podcast

TV Eh B Cs Podcast 89 — Rev & Roll-ing with Scott and Julie Stewart

A family smiles into the camera.Scott & Julie Stewart are an award-winning, Vancouver-based husband and wife team in kids’ animated content. They are showrunners, executive producers, content creators and writers.

Their latest series is Rev & Roll, which airs daily at 8 a.m. ET on Family Jr., and is also available on Family Jr. OnDemand and the Family Channel App. The action-packed show follows eight-year-old Rev, and his best friend Rumble—a powerful truck with a puppy personality—as they go on wild adventures in their town of Fender Bend!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Production is underway for marblemedia’s new fine arts competition series Landscape Artist of the Year

From a media release:

Following their wildly successful art competition series, Blown Away, Marblemedia has been commissioned by Blue Ant Media and CBC for a brand-new fine arts competition show, Landscape Artist of the Year Canada, for its Makeful channel.

Filming began on Friday, September 20th, and will continue to run through September 30th. The new series will see professional and amateur Canadian artists vie to win the title of Landscape Artist of the Year in this new Makeful competition series. Each episode features a different landscape painting challenge. Time-lapse segments ensure viewers don’t miss any of each artist’s progression from blank canvas to finished work.

Landscape Artist of the Year Canada is a four episode, 60 minute series that will visit stunning areas in Canada. Both the host and art expert judges will be revealed closer to the date on Makeful, scheduled for early 2020.

This new series is based on the original British television hit competition series of the same name, Landscape of the Year, which was created by Storyvault Films, and distributed by Banijay Rights on Sky Arts in the U.K.

Blue Ant and marblemedia are co-producing the series, having bought the rights from Banijay Rights.

Matt Hornburg, executive producer for marblemedia and Sam Linton, head of original content for Blue Ant will produce the series, with showrunner Carly Spencer (The Bachelor Canada, Hockey Wives, Back in Time for Winter, and Never Say Goodbye).

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Featured, Hudson & Rex

Hudson & Rex showrunner Derek Schreyer teases Season 2

After a break of only a few months, Hudson & Rex returns for its second season on Citytv. We couldn’t be happier. The crime drama, based out of St. John’s and starring John Reardon, Mayko Nguyen, Kevin Hanchard, Justin Kelly and German Shepherd Diesel vom Burgimwald is a must-see for anyone that enjoys their mysteries lighter in tone and with a great ensemble cast.

In Tuesday’s debut—at 8 p.m. ET on Citytv—Charlie (Reardon) and Rex (Diesel vom Burgimwald) discover a wanted criminal has been living in St. John’s under a false identity for 20 years and end up in the crosshairs when the man’s past catches up with him. Along for the ride are the capable Doctor Sarah Truong (Nguyen), Superintendent Joe Donovan (Hanchard) and Tech Analyst Jesse Mills (Kelly). And, with David Hewlett, Shiva Negar, Janet Kidder and Noam Jenkins in guest roles, it makes for a fast-paced and highly enjoyable first instalment.

We spoke to showrunner Derek Schreyer—who took over for Season 1 showrunner Ken Cuperus—about what’s to come, including a visit to France.

How’s filming been going?
Derek Schreyer: It’s been going great. It’s been really fun. For Season 2, we really pushed to get some scripts done in time for the summer, which relies on some of the amazing, amazing summer scenarios of St. John’s. So that’s been really a lot of fun.

I sort of jumped on board this as a showrunner about two-thirds of the way through Season 1. I’d never been there before, so it was like I just got thrown into the fire. It was two months of absolute pain because we were way behind and I had to do a lot of stuff. But I knew it’s the first year of the show, and every time there’s the first year of a show, there’s a lot of cooks and a lot of people really care about it, and want to make sure that it’s right. And this show’s been developed for 10 years. I mean, there’s a lot of different voices and whatnot.

I just started to really connect with the environment. I just loved St. John’s, and I love the area, and I love Diesel and the crew.

You were filming in Saint Pierre and Miquelon. What can you say about that storyline?
DS: My first episode, the one I co-wrote with my friend Alex Pugsley, is going to be set there. It’s kind of a Bon Cop, Bad Cop thing where the climax takes place in Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

Two men, a woman and a dog stand next to a parked car.One of the things about Hudson & Rex that I like is that everybody’s on an even keel, human and canine, and I love this team that you guys have established with this group of police officers that are solving these crimes.
DS: Yeah, I think it’s definitely interesting because this is obviously based on Inspector Rex. That had a certain model, and that was basically a man and his dog, which meant that there was always one of those two POVs. We’ve gone more with an ensemble feel with the dog at the mix. I just love being on a show where the No. 1 on the call sheet is a dog. It really lessens egos. They all really love just to interact with a dog. It really changes the chemistry of the set, I think.

One thing I wanted to do before we started season two is just to bring in Sherri [Davis, Diesel vom Burgimwald’s trainer] just to have her talk about the kind of things that Diesel can do. She’ll mention that she has a dog that can play as a wolf. And all of a sudden, there comes an episode right there. It could be an episode where we’re in the forest with a wolf, and plots appear, and then maybe Rex can do this, he can balance on a rope as he crosses. All of a sudden, plots ignite from that.

You already mentioned Saint Pierre and Miquelon; what are some themes and a couple of storylines that you follow in Season 2?
DS: We’ve got one that’s delved into the Insta celebrity culture. It’s kind of a comedy from Bridesmaids meets the Instagram culture. We have one called ‘The Woods Have Eyes,’ where this woman goes missing after she sees something, and the mother comes in and believes that she … we actually track her to the forest somewhere, and Rex and the team ended up discovering a sort of a shady, almost a Stranger Things-type organization, and try to figure out what they’re doing. That’s kind of neat.

Then we have one set which is super fun, it’s called ‘Game of Bones.’ It’s going to be set in the world of LARPing. It’s a completely eccentric cast of characters of LARPers who portray these characters on this battlefield. There’s a character that dies and has sort of a death rune carved in his body, and that’s symbolic of something in the sort of medieval Viking lore, and we have to explore that. So that’s kind of a really fun world.

We have one called ‘Rex in the City,’ which explores the dating culture. It’s a real bunch of mixed, fun stuff. Some of it’s a little heavier handed, and some of it’s lighter. But I think we’ve sort of figured out our tone, so we’re a fairly grounded show. We have a little bit of heart, a little bit of humour, and hopefully some really cool stories.

Hudson & Rex airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Citytv.

Images courtesy of Rogers Media.

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