TV, Eh?’s Greg David participates in Round 3 of Canada’s Smartest Person – Journalist Edition! After a shaky start, Greg evened up his race against Denette Wilford and then … well, check out the video. Thanks to CBC for the invite.
Canada’s Smartest Person returns Sunday, Oct. 4, at 8 p.m. on CBC.
Rachel Nichols is grateful to the city of Vancouver. Not only was the west coast locale her transplanted home for four seasons of Continuum, but she met her husband there. With just four more weeks until the series finale, we sat down with Nichols to chat about this sci-fi roller coaster ride.
I’m sad to see Continuum end.
Rachel Nichols: I am too, but we’ve been given six episodes to bring it all to an end and I’ve never had that opportunity before. It is bittersweet because you do those final six episodes and you know it’s the end and that end comes so quickly. But, at the same time, we get to tie up some of the loose ends—it wouldn’t be Continuum if tied them all up—and we have this family between he cast and the crew. We’ve all been here together for the last four years.
I lived in L.A. before and came up here for the first season. And I came up here for Season 2 and met the man who is now my husband. I have so many things to be grateful for. The fans were so incredibly supportive and demanding of answers and wanting another season and wanting an end to the show. I wholeheartedly believe we wouldn’t have gotten a fourth season without them, so this season if for the fans.
It would have been awful if our final vision had been the Season 3 finale.
It would have been horrible!
What was it like to read through that final episode script?
I usually go on a script by script basis so I don’t read a lot in advance, primarily because I think it would scramble my brain and I need to focus on one block of episodes at a time. I had been hearing rumblings about the last episode and I thought at one point, ‘What if they kill Kiera? What if Kiera goes back to the future and dies?’ So, when I got the first draft of Episode 6, I went right to the end to see if Kiera was still alive. There are a lot of twists and turns this season.
It’s been hard to see the relationship between Carlos and Kiera, and Kiera and Alec erode somewhat over the last season.
It’s hard for Carlos because he’s taken over Dillon’s position. He’s an Inspector now. I’m happy to say that Kiera and Alec are back on track. Kiera was very much a lone wolf last season and trying to figure out how to manipulate the situation as best she could. Carlos is that loving, Type-A, football-watching, beer-drinking high moral standard type of guy. He’s never going to change. She doesn’t like lying to him, but sometimes leaving him out of the truth is the most helpful thing for him.
Things have also gotten complicated with Brad.
Oh yeah. We’ve quickly found out that the soldiers are Brad’s people. He’s come from a time where Kellog is a warlord, so the relationship becomes much more complicated. Plus, this season has become more about getting home and I always joke, ‘What am I going to do, show up back home with my new boyfriend and tell my husband to go and kick rocks?’Â Brad and I were people who had lost so much and found this bond because of everything they’ve been through … that takes a back seat to Kiera not wanting to stay anymore. She’s done. Liber8 has been disbanded.
You’re a producer on Continuum. Does this set up groundwork for you moving forward on your own projects?
I don’t know at this point. I want to learn as much as I can and be involved in the day-to-day things as much as I can. I want to direct and add another piece to that IMDB page that says you’ve done this before. I’m very protective of the crew and making sure they’re being treated fairly. Simon has been very gracious about the words and letting me make the words more natural. I’m the lead and I want everybody to want to come to work every day and be sad that it’s going to end. My dad woke up every day happy to go to work and I want that for everybody who works on the show.
I’ll probably direct a short film first and call on a lot a favours and ask a lot of questions. [Laughs.]
Continuum airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Showcase.
Look for more interviews with Continuum stars Victor Webster, Erik Knudsen, Stephen Lobo and Roger Cross, and creator Simon Barry, in the coming weeks.
Which returning fall Canadian TV show are you most excited about?
I voted for The Next Step as a proxy for my daughter, who will probably have a viewing party for the season premiere :). —Suzanne
Murdoch Mysteries of course!!!!!! —Vivian
Murdoch Mysteries, Heartland and I wish Jonny Harris’ Still Standing was in the running. It is a great look at the light side of Canada and Canadians. Murdoch Mysteries is my No. 1 though!!! —Jeanette
Murdoch Mysteries, The Nature of Things and Marketplace. —Helene
Got a comment or question about Canadian TV? greg@tv-eh.com or @tv_eh on Twitter.
Greg joins Diane and Anthony a bit late, but he has an excuse: he’s on a two-day junket to Parry Sound and Sudbury, Ont., visiting the set of Super Channel’s thriller drama Slasher and comedy What Would Sal Do? After placing bets on whether or not he’ll survive the night in a sketchy hotel room, the trio talk about the following:
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K-pop is invading Canada. The South Korean musical genre that celebrates a riot of visuals set to an addictive beat grabs the spotlight in YTV’s Make It Pop.
Debuting Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET/PT with two back-to-back episodes, DHX Media’s fast-paced tween series follows four freshman at Mackendrick Preparatory who are determined to win spots in the art school’s musical. There’s Sun Hi (Megan Lee), a sometimes overconfident gal who records every move she makes for her fans; Jodi (Louriza Tronco), a gifted choreographer; Corki (Erika Tham) a home-schooled bookworm who values her privacy; and Caleb (Dale Whibley), a clumsy but lovable dude and brilliant musician. Co-created by Nick Cannon and Thomas Lynch, Make It Pop already launched in the U.S. in Nickelodeon last summer; the sophomore go-round of the Canadian-American co-production is filming now.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with some K-pop artists in the past in Korea and that’s how I was introduced to the world,” Cannon tells us from the Degrassi set where Make It Pop is filmed. “I’ve been working in youth television for awhile and said, ‘This would make interesting television.’ I got with my mentor, my guide, Tommy Lynch who has been doing this for many moons and we started to discuss this.”
Wednesday’s debut is jammed with dance and musical performances—during the opening assembly for the new school year and when Sun Hi goes back to the dorm room to retrieve her cell phone—and laughs, from Caleb’s blissfully bombastic creation of beats to Mr. Stark, Mackendrick’s over-the-top theatre teacher played by Matt Baram, from Sun’s unbreakable positivity to Jodi’s biting sarcasm.
“Everyone is wild around me and then I have the one sarcastic line that brings everything to a halt,” Vancouver’s Tronco says with a laugh.
But make no mistake, Make It Pop has a message for its young viewers: follow your dreams. A veteran of kid’s programming via such projects as The Nick Cannon Show, All That, Star Camp and Incredible Crew, Cannon may have a laid-back air about him while slouching in a chair and sporting sunglasses, but he’s dead serious about his responsibilities to young TV viewers.
“We grow up on shows like Degrassi or my stuff from my Nickelodeon days, that’s when content and entertainment mean the most,” he says. “That’s when you’re the most inspired and informed by things. It more important to you because that’s all you have. Adults use entertainment to escape, but when you’re a teen or tween it’s helping shape you.”
Make It Pop airs Wednesdays at 7 p.m. ET/PT on YTV.
