From Etan Vlessing of The Hollywood Reporter:
Link: Catherine Reitman reflects on creating ‘Workin’ Moms’ and reaching seventh, final season: “I’m Still in Disbelief”
“In America, the edgiest storyline is the abortion storyline. In Canada, it’s no big deal. In Canada, it’s these women are so flawed, that they do things that are occasionally unlikable. That’s the biggest bump here.” Continue reading.
Growing up, I loved to read about treasure. It was in a copy of Children’s Digest that I first learned about Oak Island and the supposed treasure buried there. (They’re still looking for it on that other History Channel show.) I’m still fascinated by these tales of lost loot, and the people who search for them. And History Channel’s latest is a doozy.
Deadman’s Curse, debuting Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History Channel, follows a quartet determined to find gold in Pitt Lake, B.C., despite the supposed curse associated with it. In the first of eight episodes, prospector Kru Williams, mountaineer Adam Palmer, Indigenous explorer Taylor Starr and her father, Don Froese, recall the legend of Slumach’s lost gold mine.
The story goes that Slumach, an elderly Katzie First Nations man, died on the gallows in New Westminster in January of 1891. Before he died, Slumach is alleged to have uttered the words, “Nika memloose, mine memloose,” or “When I die, the mine dies.” For over 100 years, many have tried to find the mine, to no avail. Well, that’s not quite true. According to Walter Jackson, he discovered the mine in 1901 and, weighed down with too much gold to carry, buried it. Jackson died after returning home, but not before writing a letter to a friend with clues to the spot he buried the gold. It’s gone undiscovered ever since.
My biggest beef with series like these is they’re packed with stories, conjecture and assumptions, and frustratingly light on actual discoveries. Deadman’s Curse begins with plenty of backstory and research done by Kru and Adam sufficient to pique my interest, especially when Adam seems to have a line on a copy of Jackson’s letter. Meanwhile, Taylor does research into Slumach, who he was, and why he was hung. These two storylines are compelling, and really add legitimacy to Deadman’s Curse and what the producers are trying to achieve.
And, by the time the first 44 minutes are complete, enough information has been unearthed for the group—and me, the viewer—to continue the quest.
Deadman’s Curse airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History Channel.
Image courtesy of Corus.
From a media release:
Released today, the Canada Media Fund (CMF)’s 2021-2022 Annual Report shows that our investments in Canada’s screen-based industries triggered a record-breaking $1.9B in production across the country. Every $1 of CMF funding generated $5.16 in production activity, the highest leverage ratio since the CMF was created in 2010, and played a key role in creating close to 217,000 jobs in Canada’s screen sector.
“The industry we serve is on the verge of a magnitude of change—and it’s long overdue,” says Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, CMF. “We are proud to generate record-breaking production activity across Canada’s screen-based industries, but even more importantly, we delivered over $60M for equity-seeking communities through our Equity and Inclusion Strategy. One of our main priorities is to ensure a truly accessible and inclusive screen sector that supports all storytellers in bringing their stories to screens here at home and beyond our borders.”
View our 2021-2022 Annual Report
As the industry rapidly evolves, CMF programs delivered $359M in funding for the prototyping, development, production, promotion, and export of 1,433 television and digital media projects in 2021-2022. This level of investment and support was made possible thanks to the continued commitments of the CMF’s funding contributors: the Government of Canada, and Canada’s cable, satellite, and IPTV distributors.
As showcased in our 2021-2022 Annual Report, the CMF’s funding programs, as well as our extensive research and promotion initiatives, are clear examples of the fundamental role we play in driving Canada’s digital economy and supporting our nation’s cultural diversity.
From a media release:
Blue Ant Media – international producer, distributor and channel operator – and The Holmes Group, have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the extensive library of unscripted original series and specials of Mike Holmes, a pioneer in home renovation and one of the highest-rated stars of lifestyle television. The deal gives Blue Ant Media ownership of over 200 hours of programming from the past two decades, including all seasons of Holmes on Homes, Holmes Makes it Right, Holmes Inspection, alongside specials such as Holmes for the Holidays, Holmes in New Orleans and Mike’s Ultimate Garage, among others.
As current licenses expire, the beloved library of programming will launch in FAST exclusively on Blue Ant Media’s new free streaming channel, Homeful, which showcases real estate, design and decor projects that help make a house a home. Over the coming months, audiences in the US and Canada will see Homeful introduce the Holmes content on platforms such as Roku, LG and Xumo. Blue Ant International now holds the distribution rights to Holmes’ catalog, which will debut at Mipcom 2022 this fall.
As part of the new partnership, Blue Ant Media will also commission new original programming with Mike and his kids Michael Holmes Jr and Sherry Holmes, for its Canadian TV platforms and Homeful. More details on this commissioning will be announced in the coming months.
Having earned his place as one of North America’s most trusted contractors, Mike Holmes holds a loyal fanbase amongst audiences and is widely considered the face of the home renovation space. In every Holmes series, the beloved contractor fixes poor construction work while lending his incredible eye for detail and expert advice to guide homebuyers, homeowners, friends, and family into doing it right.
Newly-launched in spring 2022, Homeful features notable real estate, renovation and transformation series with some of the most well-known faces in TV home design. The new deal builds on Blue Ant Media’s already comprehensive library of original and acquired design and decor-inspired programs. The full list of Mike Holmes IP that Blue Ant now owns, includes: Holmes on Homes™ (Seasons 1-7), Holmes Makes it Right (Seasons 1-2), Holmes Inspection (Seasons 1-3), Holmes + Holmes (Seasons 1-2) Holmes for the Holidays, Lien on Me, Best of Holmes on Homes, Holmes In New Orleans, Holmes Family Effect, Holmes 10th Anniversary and Mike’s Ultimate Garage.
Blue Ant Media’s suite of FAST (free, ad-supported streaming TV) channels offer audiences curated, exclusive programming that is free to access on growing platforms like VIZIO WatchFree+, The Roku Channel, Xumo, Samsung TV Plus and PrendeTV. The company’s growing global portfolio of FAST channels include Love Nature, HauntTV, Total Crime, Homeful and HistoryTime.
The first season of The Social is memorable to Cynthia Loyst for a couple of reasons. Back when it launched in September 2013, Loyst was, as she describes, “a sleep-deprived new mom pumping my breasts backstage between rehearsals.” And, secondly, there was a chemistry between the hosts at that time—Melissa Grelo, Lainey Lui, Loyst and Traci Melchor—she noticed right away.
With Season 10 of The Social returning this week at 1 p.m. ET on CTV Grelo, Lui and Jess Allen, Loyst looks back on the past nine seasons.
Congratulations on your upcoming 10th season of The Social.
Cynthia Loyst: I cannot believe it’s the 10th season of The Social. I was literally pregnant when we were doing auditions for this show. And then when we launched the show, I was a sleep-deprived new mom who was pumping my breasts backstage in between rehearsals and things. So we’ve come a long way. I have this boy who’s going into Grade 4.
Back when you were doing the auditions and you were pregnant, what were your thoughts at the time? Were you thinking, ‘What were they thinking when they asked me to do this? Or what was I thinking when I agreed to do this?’
CL: Well, it’s interesting because there were rumours of a show being developed that was kind of going to be a Canadian version of The View for a long time prior to this. Even when I was doing the audition, I was like, ‘Well, is this thing even going to happen?’ But then it seemed like it was becoming more of a reality. And I thought, ‘Well, there’s no way they’re going to hire me,’ because the timeline was such that I would’ve been just after giving birth. So I thought, ‘I’m probably out of the running,’ But then I got the call and was told that I was going to be part of the cast. I was shocked. I went through a variety of emotions. I was shocked. I was elated. And then I was terrified.
And was there chemistry between the hosting panel back then? Was it immediate?
CL: There were a bunch of different people who auditioned. The producers threw us in different combinations and configurations and the very, very first test group was the original four of us who were actually hired. There was really good chemistry, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. But looking back, it was clear that there was a kind of electricity with that first initial four. And clearly, other people felt it too, because my understanding is they went through a bunch of different combinations and then they showed them to test audiences to see what people really were resonating towards. And so I think part of that was what was immediately picked up on.
You can’t fake chemistry on television.
CL: We didn’t know each other all that well, but there was a mutual respect right away. And even though we didn’t come from necessarily different political backgrounds, a la The View, we were definitely very different women. We’re not the type of women who would necessarily be thrown together and have come together naturally. For whatever reason though, I think there was just a combination of stage of life, experience level, and I think passion for hot topics and a willingness to speak out that brought out some kind of interesting magic and alchemy.
What were your expectations during that first season?
CL: I think my expectations were just to stay treading water. I couldn’t really think beyond the end of the day. Because I was sleep-deprived and because I was this new mom, everything felt very new and I don’t remember thinking that it would last past the season, but I don’t remember thinking it wouldn’t last past the season. I was just kind of like, ‘Let’s keep this thing as long as we can.’
Can you walk me through the process of how the content of an episode of The Social is decided?
CL: Every evening or afternoon, we get a lineup of pitches. Our producers and us have contributed anything that comes across our feed that we feel passionate about or excited about. And somebody assembles that into a short list. Sometimes it’s as many as 40 pitches and they have links attached to them. We go through them, we pick our topic, like six or seven, and we send that in. Then the producers meet early in the morning before we are part of that and hammer out what they think will be our hot topic topics from segments one, two, and now three. And then we meet all together in person and we kind of hash it out around the table. During the pandemic, it was all on a Zoom call or on a phone call.
Sometimes we’re able to immediately go, ‘OK, yeah. That lineup is amazing. Let’s run with it.’ And other times it’s quite a struggle. It might be that we feel it’s too much of a personal ask to go down a certain road. Or it might be that there’s a topic in the news that we feel like we don’t have enough information about. We don’t feel comfortable, let’s shelve that for tomorrow. Those are the types of discussions that we have at any given point in time.
Segments four and five now are lifestyle segments, so those are planned way in advance. It might be an author, a celebrity, a chef, or a fashion person. The show was conceived as feeling like you’re either going through a magazine or surrounded by a really interesting dinner party. It feels like that’s sort of spirit and energy of the show.
What is it that you particularly look for when all these pitches are brought to you or all these segment ideas? What gets you excited?
CL: My background is in sexual health and I’m a sex educator and that’s what I did first. I was producing for documentary series about sexuality. Relationships and love are big to me and I’m a parent, so I feel like whenever there’s something that kind of comes up in the parenting realm, often ignites something in me and I think a lot of our viewers. But then sometimes there’s unexpected stuff that comes up in the news, where you’re just like, ‘Even if I don’t immediately have an opinion or thought about it, I know it’s an important thing to delve into.’ And so then it becomes this sort of puzzle of doing research quickly to come up with something that’s articulate and thoughtful without just being like news. Because we aren’t the news.
We come after the news. But we aren’t news and that’s not what we’re supposed to be. We’re trying to add to an insight or a personal take or something that maybe people wouldn’t have thought of related to maybe a news topic. So it’s always different things that ignite. And sometimes I’ll read something and think, ‘Oh, I’m not that interested.’ But then in the meeting, someone will say something and they’ll spur on some kind of inspiration towards it.
Is there a standout moment for you or two over the last nine seasons?
CL: We obviously had a really hard time, like everyone else did, during the pandemic. It was hard doing a TV show where you’re used to communicating in real-time and having an audience and a connection. So that was a real challenge, but I think something beautiful came out of it. After the murder of George Floyd, the conversation immediately became, rightly so, about Black lives. And we had Tyrone Edwards from eTalk on the show and it was a moment that went viral.
He was so emotional and spoke from the heart and it was just an unforgettable moment and a really important one, I think, for viewers most of all to see that. I think it helps change a conversation and illuminate things that maybe hadn’t been seen on daytime TV before.
Anything else?
CL: I have this gigantic crush on Jason Momoa from Game of Thrones and Aquaman. He came on the show, and one of the producers, unbeknownst to me, had assembled a little montage of me talking about Jason Momoa. She played it for him on the show, much to my mortification, but he was a great sport about it. I wanted to climb out of my own skin and maybe hide behind the couch.
The Social airs weekdays at 1 p.m. ET on CTV.
Images courtesy of Bell Media.
