City-TV announced today that Brad Smith will be the dude on The Bachelor Canada.
Smith, 28, caught a few passes in the CFL as a member of the Montreal Alouettes, Toronto Argonauts and Edmonton Eskimos. He’ll takes passes this fall from a bevy of eligible Canadian babes desperate for the kind of naked humiliation only a dating reality show can provide.
The Hudson, Quebec native is the son of former CFL commissioner, Montreal Alouettes president and current senator Larry Smith. In his best season with the Argos, Smith Junior caught 14 passes for 142 yards.
Rogers, which owns City, is run by a couple of sports guys.
The City release suggests he’s “taking some time off sports to find true love.” Argos helped with that decision when they cut the former 6th round pick for the third time in 2009.
“I can’t wait to meet all the wonderful Canadian women who have put their lives on hold to experience all of this with me,” he says in the release. “I hope I can live up to their expectations.”
Building expectations is City’s director of original programming Claire Freeland, who used the term “full package” to describe Smith.
There will be 25 Bachelorettes on the nine episode series, which will premiere in the fall. Chris Harrison will host. The Bachelor premiered a decade ago on ABC in the States and in its 16th edition, 21 counting The Bachelorette.
Recent attempts to catch some of the fading glow from reality operas have hit roadblocks in Canada. City’s Canada’s Got Talent slumped to 286,000 overnight, estimated viewers last Monday, about a quarter of what America’s Got Talent averages on City in Canada. The Real Housewives of Vancouver scored 112,000 viewers for a new episode last Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Slice. More successful has been the W Network’s Undercover Boss Canada, which cracked the half million viewer mark throughout its run. A second season has been ordered.
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