Results tagged “ctv”

So you spent tens of thousands of dollars on a journalism degree from a good school and now you're pulling espresso shots for suits like some kind of industry cliché. Well, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, kid. CTV's got a job that you are eminently qualified for!

Although Mother Nature may not be providing the most worthy goodbye (she always was a fickle lover), one of her biggest crushes, Dave Devall, is retiring today. After forty-eight years as weatherman at CTV Toronto, our favourite local TV grandpa is packing up the plexiglass and felt pen. And other than deciding to audition with two thousand others for the fledgling Toronto station decades ago, it may be the best choice he has made. Since he announced his retirement on February 2, he has had a street in Scarborough named after him, been recognized as the world record holder for longest tenure as a weather man, awarded the Radio-Television News Directors' Association of Canada’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and named an Honorary Colonel of the Canadian Forces.

Yesterday, sleepy Fairview Mall was transformed into the site of the Canada's Next Top Model casting (and to answer your first question, no, Jay Manuel wasn't there). Hundreds of high-heeled and short-skirted girls (allegedly) aged eighteen to twenty-three nervously awaited their fate before a crush of onlookers and several skeevy guys vying for the best vantage points.

Although Stephen Harper has started to make concessions on his party's November fiscal update, we can’t forget that he broke his promise of fixed election dates earlier this year and has now also formally parted ways with his pledge to elect senators. Unsurprisingly, the newly appointed senators who were announced today have deep ties to the Conservative Party, but the big shock has been the inclusion of CTV News commentator Mike Duffy. All of a sudden the release of that bumbling Stéphane Dion video back in October makes so much more sense.

The economic crisis just got so, so, so much worse: Canadian Idol will be taking a "rest" in 2009, with broadcaster CTV citing the "economic climate." Judge Zack Werner told the Star that the show proved to young people that "if you hope and you dream and you try, you can do something more with your life, whether it's become a doctor or a basketball player," which is confusing, because we thought the show was just for singers.

Photos by Hannah Sider.

At first, the idea of Canadian versions of popular reality shows sounded pretty terrible, but Canuck versions of Project Runway and Top Model have been more entertaining than they had any right to be. Next up is So You Think You Can Dance Canada, premiering September 11 on CTV. Granted, we were initially anxious over Leah Miller as host and the new ads look pretty cheesy, but with Tré Armstrong of How She Move and dance legend Rex Harrington onboard as judges, it'll be hard not to tune in—especially on the recommendation of Televisualist!

Friday's episode of Canadian drama Flashpoint managed to bring back about 85% of the audience for round two and was the most-watched program of the night on both sides of the border. (The decline could be attributed to the Joker Effect, as ratings for Friday were depressed compared to the previous week, while 10 million people took in the newest Batman film.) In a sign of confidence, CTV and CBS, which broadcast Flashpoint in the States, have been replaying the show on Sundays to boost exposure. The tactic was one way to counterbalance Flashpoint's so-called "dead zone" timeslot of Friday at 10 p.m. (Although if eight to nine million viewers can find a show at the time, is it the slot that is the problem or the lack of involving programming?)

Flashpoint, about an elite police squad based in Toronto, was off to a great start on Friday, with over one million Canadian viewers and over eight million American viewers tuning in for the premiere on CTV and CBS—despite the lackluster 10 p.m. time slot. The show was the top-rated program for Friday, and should rank in the top 15 primetime shows for the week in both Canada and the United States. The success of Flashpoint on Friday led to a re-broadcast of the pilot on Sunday, when another four million Americans tuned in. (Canadian data have not been released yet for Sunday.)

Hey, CBC—you wanna come over to Torontoist's house and play a little Texas Hold 'Em sometime? CBC got called on their Hockey Night in Canada bluff today as rival CTV announced that they've struck a deal for the rights to the HNIC signature tune.

Snappy Answers runs every Saturday afternoon. Send your questions, be they tough or trivial, to snappyanswers@torontoist.com.

Well, it's about time. Two years after launching downloadable television shows south of the border, Apple has finally flipped the switch here, albeit with a dearth of content. Single television episodes are available via iTunes for $1.99, and full seasons range from about $10–$30. Most of the shows currently available are for domestic productions, like CTV's Degrassi: The Next Generation and the CBC series Little Mosque on the Prairie, but non-Canadian shows, like South...