Bell Media has laid off 17 staffers following the cancellation of Daily Planet on Discovery Canada and Innerspace on Space. Innerspace had run for nine seasons, while Daily Planet has been on air for 23 years, dating back to the Discovery Channel’s launch in 1995. Bell Media says due to increasing production costs and declining revenue, it can no longer continue production.
CBC has announced 17 new series and 36 renewals as part of its 2018-19 slate. New CBC original Canadian series include comedy Cavendish, from Picnicface comedy troupe founders Mark Little and Andrew Bush, along with Garry Campbell (Kim’s Convenience); drama Coroner, based on the book series by M.R. Hall; legal drama Diggstown, set in a Dartmouth, NS, legal aid office – the first original Canadian drama series featuring a black female lead character; family drama Northern Rescue; and the revival of Street Legal which picks up 25 years later with Olivia Novak (Cynthia Dale), now a named partner at a major Bay Street law firm.
CTV has released its summer 2018 schedule anchored by Season 6 of The Amazing Race Canada, beginning July 3. The lineup includes new detective drama Take Two, starring Rachel Bilson and Eddie Cibrian; DIY competition series Making It with Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, and Season 2 of Jennifer Lopez’s World of Dance. Corner Gas Animated and original mystery-crime drama Carter, starring Jerry O’Connell, also make their network debut.
CTV confirmed Tuesday it was removing episodes of Roseanne from its platforms after the series was abruptly cancelled by ABC. The network’s move followed a Twitter comment from the comedienne referring to former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett as looking like the offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes.” Roseanne later apologized. ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey denounced the comment as “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”
DHX Television’s Family Channel, Universal Kids and Six Eleven Media have started production on new live-action series Greenfields. Created by Derek Harvie, the half-hour, single camera comedy follows 12-year-old Max and an eclectic group of friends as they navigate the highs and lows of running a startup. The 20-episode order is being filmed in Toronto, with the series scheduled to debut on Family Channel (Canada) and Universal Kids (U.S.) this fall.
Karen Walton is the recipient of the 5th annual Nell Shipman Award. The Toronto ACTRA Women’s Committee (TAWC) created the award to honour a female-identifying producer, writer, showrunner, mentor or programmer who has advanced gender equity in the Canadian film and television industry. Walton is a film writing graduate of the Canadian Film Centre and a recent Showrunner in Residence for the CFC’s Bell Media Prime Time TV program. She is best known as the writer of the cult horror classic Ginger Snaps, with her TV credits including episodes of Orphan Black and Queer as Folk. In 2007, she founded Facebook group inkcanada – Canadian Screenwriters & Their Sketchy Friends, dedicated to fostering open exchanges between Canada’s professional storytellers and those who aspire to tell their own stories.
Amir Kahnamouee has been selected as the winner of the 2018 Daryl Duke Prize, an award created to support up-and-coming Canadian film and television writers, for his screenplay Port of Call. The prize comes with a $25,000 award. Set in Montreal where Amir was born, Port of Call is inspired by the real life experiences of his uncle who immigrated to Canada with his family to seek a better life around the time of the revolution in Iran. The Daryl Duke Foundation announced the launch of the prize in 2016 to honour the memory of the late Emmy Award-winning Canadian film and television creator from Vancouver. Among his credits was the acclaimed series Thorn Birds.
