Last, but certainly not least among Canada’s media companies to hold a virtual upfront to advertisers this week was Bell Media. Their pre-packaged ad reel went “live” around 2 p.m. ET and, while there was one drop out on my screen for a minute or two, it wrapped up at the 3:07 mark. Bell boasted
Norman Jewison turns 95 in July. His 24 feature films — 15 more than Quentin Tarantino — garnered 48 Academy Award nominations, winning two Best Picture Oscars (for “In the Heat of the Night” in 1967 and “Moonstruck” in 1987). The Thalberg Award winner helped create the Canadian Film Centre, nurturing and developing the next
Global framed their 43 minute, virtual upfront presentation Wednesday with an old-fashioned “let’s put on a show” approach. Food Network Canada host Noah Cappe kidded around as the director of the virtual video, introducing Corus execs such as Doug Murphy, Troy Reeb and Barb McKergow. Hey, it’s been a long year in lockdown. Things opened
Director of programming Stuart Hands and the good folks at the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation have once again done me the honour of asking me to moderate one of their Q&A panels. That happens tonight, Wednesday, June 9 at 7 p.m. as the TJFF pays homage to the late, great Carl Reiner. To join the
A quick look at the top TV shows in English Canada the week of May 24 to May 30 according to Numeris. Here’s how the Top-10 looked in Live+7, viewers 2+ average minute audience totals: The Good Doctor (CTV) Mon 1,911,000 9-1-1 (Global) Mon 1,902,000 The Masked Singer (CTV) Wed 1,631,000 9-1-1: Lone Star (CTV)
The return of Canada’s Got Talent, six hours of Dick Wolf drama imports and the launch of Bachelor in Paradise Canada were all among the headlines at Tuesday’s Rogers Sports and Media virtual Upfront presentation to advertisers. This is a busy week in Canadian television. I had to interrupt my screening of the Rogers Sports
World War Two historian and author David O’Keefe to pointed out an interesting irony the other day on Facebook. Tonight’s Juno Awards are airing on June 6 — the anniversary of the allies landing at Juno Beach as part of D-Day invasion. Now it is D-Day for Canada’s quarantined music industry given how many times
Gavin MacLeod had to know both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Love Boat would be referenced in the first line of all his obituaries. The New York State native — who passed away May 29 at 90 — was Murray Slaughter or Captain Stubing through 16 straight seasons of network TV glory. Yet
Paul Soles — one of the last surviving members of the annual holiday special Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer voice cast — passed away Wednesday in Toronto. He was 90. Soles, of course, was known for so much more than that. His career in Canadian television spanned seven decades, from an early appearance on London, Ontario’s
One of the great late night talk show guests of all time was Charles Grodin. Who else was cocky enough to slump down next to Johnny Carson and ask if he cared at all about any of his guests? (As he does in the above clip from 1990.) The studio audience and viewers at home
Canadian filmmaker and IMAX co-inventor Graeme Ferguson passed away May 8 at 91 at his home in the heart of Ontario’s cottage country. He made a film that had a great impact on this writer as a young teenager — “North of Superior.” Mr. Ferguson career in television reached back into the ’50s and included
Johnny Crawford was a kid on a real cowboy set back when millions of other youngsters across North America were faking it at home. Difference was, Crawford was getting paid big bucks to live out his fantasy as a child star on the late ’50s, early ’60s TV western The Rifleman. I met him in
On Sunday, CNN premieres The Story of Late Night, a six-part docuseries examining the nearly 70-year history of television’s post-primetime talk shows. The series was produced by Toronto-based Cream Productions. To set it all up, listen to my conversation with Bill Carter (above), the long-time New York Times columnist and bestselling “Late Shift” author who