I caught up with Andrew Orenstein last week. He’s the creator and showrunner of Package Deal, which is back for a second season starting Friday night at 8 p.m. ET on City. Orenstein was at a downtown Toronto hotel and I managed to trick him into buying lunch. We had a good catch up over
The boldest moves of the just-concluded Canadian network television upfront week in Toronto? It may have been the moves Bell Media boss Kevin Crull made on stage Thursday at the Sony Centre. Crull exploded the image of Bell execs as staid number crunchers by suddenly turning into Ryan Seacrest. He began as a three-dimensional hologram
There was plenty of room for the 1600 ad reps, TV beat writers and network officials attending Tuesday night’s 2014 Rogers Media upfront inside the cavernous Rogers Centre. The upfront just happened to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Centre, originally named SkyDome when it opened in 1989. The Toronto sports shrine was a fitting
Turns out Mr. D graduated to a fourth season thanks to Mr. R. As in Rogers. In one of the more surprising revelations at Rogers’ Tuesday upfront, it was learned that the private broadcaster–which got into bed with its skates on in the deal to keep Hockey Night in Canada on CBC for the next
Guillermo del Toro is the executive producer, director, writer, comic book creator and everything else on FX’s new horror series The Strain. Is there anything he doesn’t do, he was asked Tuesday at Rogers’ press preview in Toronto. “Exercise,” was del Toro’s quick reply. for a horror maven, he’s one funny fellow. Del Toro was
That hour you’ll never get back? It starts weeknights at 10 p.m. On City. The Rogers-owned network has followed the Fox lead and trimmed 10 – 11 p.m. off its prime time schedule for the 2014-15 season. City has struggled to break through the lock CTV and Global have on 10 p.m. across Canada. This
The U.S. network upfront announcements are creating the usual headaches for Canadian TV execs. Tuesday, ABC, as part of their Upfront presentation in New York, announced it is moving Grey’s Anatomy forward an hour to Thursday at 8 p.m. This will creat an all Shonda Rhimes night on ABC, with Grey’s at 8, Scandal (much
“Honey, can I borrow your face for a step ladder for a moment?” By now you’ve seen this ad for Next Issue, Rogers’ on-line magazine service: A young couple walk through a busy airport (Terminal 1 at Toronto’s Pearson). The woman can’t be without her giant stack of current magazines so her whipped boyfriend tows