Posts Tagged ‘shaw media’

Much VJ Search is a throwback sugar rush

- April 18th, 2013

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The young men and women involved in the Much VJ Search are all so perky.

Just wait until the winner has to find an apartment in Toronto. That’s when the perkiness will disappear, my friends.

But there’s no need to put a damper on things yet. The Much VJ Search is continuing, with the finale taking place Friday, April 26, conveniently on MuchMusic.

The Much VJ Search has been around in various forms for quite a few years now. The idea is to anoint a new on-air personality for the channel, which has undergone many changes since it was such a powerful force on the Canadian TV landscape in the 1980s and early 1990s.

If you watch any episode of this year’s Much VJ Search, it’s actually nice to see that young people still can get excited about something.

It’s almost impossible to get most people in their late teens or early 20s to look up from their smart phones. So to find a group of young contestants who are openly passionate about wanting this TV gig, there’s almost a heartwarming throwback feel to it, for lack of a better term.

This year’s Much VJ Search began with a cross-Canada bus trip. Eliminated contestants were left on random street corners to fend for themselves. Okay, not really. But by the time the bus arrived in Toronto at the MuchMusic headquarters, only 12 competitors remained, and that number immediately was whittled to 10.

It certainly seems as if the youngsters picked for the Much VJ Search emerged from the same central casting agency that selected the contestants for Big Brother Canada, which currently is airing on Slice. Yes, the Big Brother Canada folks are older, but there’s an unmistakable similarity between reality-TV participants on various shows.

And that’s what the Much VJ Search is, essentially: A reality TV show that increasingly has incorporated elements from other reality TV shows.

The town-to-town touring thing had an American Idol feel to it at times, at least in the early weeks of any American Idol season.

When the top 10 contestants on the Much VJ Search settled in Toronto for the stretch run, they found out they would be living in the MuchMusic studios, dubbed Camp Much for the occasion. That, of course, brings Big Brother to mind.

And then the top 10 were divided into five groups of two, each mentored by an existing MuchMusic VJ: Damian Abraham, Phoebe Dykstra, previous Much VJ Search winner Liz Trinnear, Scott Willats and Tyrone (T-RexXx) Edwards. You know, exactly like The Voice.

The underpinnings of the music industry have been altered so dramatically since the glory days of MuchMusic, a VJ needs to know far more about pop culture than ever before. The channel now is way more of a pop-culture channel for mid-teens and tweens than a music channel for people in their 20s. That’s not a criticism, merely an observation.

But again, even if it’s pop culture and not music necessarily that we’re taking about, it’s nice to see young people excited about something, anything.

With all its perkiness, watching any random half-hour of the Much VJ Search will leave you with a sugar rush similar to eating a dozen doughnuts in one sitting.

Um, not that I’ve ever done that, but you get the idea.

Bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

@billharris_tv

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Jessalyn Gilsig of Vikings asks, “I have eyes that can’t be trusted?” Well …

- April 4th, 2013

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Vikings certainly is a departure from Glee.

“A slight departure, that’s a great word,” said Canadian actress Jessalyn Gilsig with a laugh.

After all, no one has broken into song on Vikings, the rookie series that is airing Sundays on History Television.

“Not yet,” Gilsig said. “Keep hope alive.”

Well, even if there’s no singing and dancing on Vikings, Gilsig’s character Siggy is changing her tune in recently aired episodes, and even more so in episodes yet to come.

Vikings is a historical drama that follows the adventures of Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) and his wife Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) in their power struggle against Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne). Gilsig’s character Siggy is Earl Haraldson’s wife.

In the first few episodes of Vikings, there were many scenes where Siggy merely was observing what was going on, but not doing too much speaking. But you could tell bigger things were being set up for Siggy, in large part because of Gilsig’s expressive eyes.

“I have eyes that can’t be trusted?” Gilsig asked.

Well, I wouldn’t put it exactly that way. But Gilsig has eyes that suggest there’s more going on than we know.

That quality was on full display during Gilsig’s run on Glee, where she played Terri Schuester, the somewhat unhinged wife of Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison). Not every actor has that ability to convey something with a glance.

“Aw, thank you,” Gilsig said. “I feel like that’s my job. I feel that’s what they taught us.

“This role was a good example of what you’re talking about, because there were many scenes in the early episodes where, you get the script and you see, ‘Well, I don’t have any lines, but I’m there.’ That’s not an accident. It’s not like they’re saying, ‘What random people should we have in the room?’ There’s a reason Michael (Hirst, the creator of Vikings) put me in the room.

“And when I was working with Gabriel, what was so fantastic about him was that he knew why I was there. He didn’t think, ‘Oh, and then they put this girl beside me.’ We talked about couples in dictatorships, and how so often, there were these women who, you almost feel like their husbands were terrified of them. Sometimes it’s years later, but you’ll hear, ‘Well, you know who the true monster was.’ ”

Siggy hasn’t proven to be a monster. But she has shown that she’s willing to go behind her husband’s back if she believes he is making errors in political judgment. And it also has been revealed that Siggy has a bit of a thing for Rollo, Ragnar Lothbrok’s brother, played by Clive Standen.

“Another dimension that Michael and I talked about was, Siggy is a survivor,” Gilsig said. “There is absolutely no way she is going to go down with the ship. She’s going to stay on the ship that’s working. She’s fine with jumping ships.

“She is a very complex and very driven woman. And obviously, as an actor, who doesn’t want to play that?”

Now, if only Siggy could organize a Vikings song-and-dance show in an effort to get to the Scandinavian “regionals,” Jessalyn Gilsig really would be in her element.

bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

@billharris_tv

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On-air seizure, mocked by Kimmel; Global’s Mark McAllister opens up about his epilepsy

- March 7th, 2013

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When Global TV news reporter Mark McAllister suffered through an attack of on-air verbal gobbledygook in March 2011, most observers just assumed it was some kind of screwup rather than anything more serious.

ABC late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel played the clip on his show the next evening, commenting that it seemed as if McAllister was reading “from a melted teleprompter.” Kimmel played the clip both backward and forward, to show that there wasn’t much difference. Kimmel then concluded, “Does anyone here speak Canadian?”

In all fairness to Kimmel, he couldn’t have known there was something medically amiss with McAllister. Heck, McAllister didn’t know. But subsequently, McAllister was diagnosed with epilepsy, a disease that affects one in every 100 Canadians.

This Saturday, March 9, Global is airing a half-hour feature titled Focus Ontario: Inside Epilepsy. McAllister speaks openly about his on-air seizure and the fallout, which eventually led to his diagnosis.

Produced to coincide with Epilepsy Awareness Month, Focus Ontario: Inside Epilepsy provides an in-depth look at the medical efforts to understand, treat and explain the disorder. The special will share personal stories of those living with epilepsy and analyze the stigma of the condition, which often frustrates efforts to raise awareness.

Focus Ontario: Inside Epilepsy airs Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (Eastern time), on Global.

bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

@billharris_tv

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From black belt to “shieldmaiden” – don’t mess with Vikings star Katheryn Winnick

- February 27th, 2013

Lagertha – played by Katheryn Winnick

As Katheryn Winnick puts it, “There are no soft Vikings.”

But they had codes of conduct, too. The fact that both the honour and the brutality are on full display – particularly through Winnick’s portrayal of real-life shieldmaiden Lagertha – is a large part of what makes Vikings so compelling.

“The way this is written by Michael Hirst, you understand both sides,” said Winnick (pictured above), whose new scripted historical series Vikings debuts Sunday, March 3 on History.

“You understand how the monks in England felt when they were getting raided, and then murdered. But you also understand, for the Vikings, that it’s just what they did, they felt it was within their rights, that it was their path, actively laid out by their gods.

“So you really struggle with what’s right and wrong. But we need to understand their belief system, that in order to go to heaven, their Valhalla, they had to die in battle.”

Lagertha was a real person, the wife of Ragnar Lothbrok (played here by Travis Fimmel) and a fierce shieldmaiden and warrior in her own right. Lagertha certainly faces many challenges in Vikings, both emotional and physical, to the point that I felt the need to apologize to Winnick on behalf of the male gender.

“It’s interesting that you say that, because I’m torn about it,” Winnick said. “My character challenges men on a lot of different fronts. But with who they were as Vikings, they were allowed to get away with a lot more.

“For example, raping slaves – I know that’s something that was part of it, because they saw slaves as property. There’s a scene where my character ends up killing someone else and defending a woman because she was getting raped.

“But you also see who women were on the other side of things, as Vikings. They did get respect. Women were allowed to own property. They were allowed to divorce their husbands. They were allowed to go to battle and be warriors. They could create their own wealth and had a say in the community. So hopefully women will identify with, and look up to, my character, because I think she definitely is a strong role model.”

Winnick, a Canadian, has an impressive martial-arts background, getting her first black belt when she was 13 and starting her first martial-arts school when she was 16. So in some ways Winnick has spent much of her life training for this role in Vikings, albeit inadvertently.

“Having the strength and being able to defend her family, through words and through character and through situations, and how to get out of situations, I think it’s part of Lagertha’s core,” Winnick said. “And that I identify with.

“I started training in martial arts when I was seven and started competing nationally and had to fight boys and men a lot in my competitive years. So I understand what it’s like to have that discipline, but also to have that mentality of, ‘I’m strong.’ ”

I am convinced, Katheryn Winnick. Seriously, I believe you. Just please don’t raid my town, okay?

@billharris_tv

Bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

 

 

 

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Host Arisa Cox keen to bring some sporty spice to Big Brother Canada

- February 22nd, 2013

Arisa Cox - inside

Arisa Cox, sports reporter.

Okay, not literally.

But in her role as host of Big Brother Canada, which debuts Wednesday, Feb. 27 on Slice and Global, Cox will have to call upon some sports-reporting skills.

Think about it: Cox (pictured above) will be the one doing the exit interviews when contestants are booted from the Big Brother Canada house. It’s as if they’re athletes who have just lost the big game and have to face the media.

“That’s a perfect analogy, actually,” Cox said. “Because they’ve still got that adrenalin running through their systems.

“And a lot of times when people are evicted from the house, they didn’t see it coming. For a viewer, those are the best evictions, for sure. But a lot of the contestants are really blindsided when it happens.

“So just like an athlete, they’re coming out of this extremely stressful situation. They’re already so overwhelmed from being in this surreal life experience, and then they pop out, and there’s a huge live studio audience, and cameras, and I’m there.”

That’s when Cox will have to be at her best, gauging what approach to take to get the most out of her interview subjects.

“There are millions of things going through their heads, but it’s a really good time to get at some of the meat of the drama that has happened in the house,” Cox said. “So I’m really excited to do those exit interviews.”

Cox described the Big Brother Canada hosting gig as the “perfect job” for her. It gives her an opportunity to call upon many of the things she has learned through her career, both on-camera and behind the scenes.

“I think having come from a reality-show background myself (Cox was a house-guest in the first season of Canadian reality show The Lofters back in 2001), and before that journalism, I feel that you have to come at this with a fair amount of levity, because it is, of course, entertainment,” Cox said. “But at the same time, you do have to bring a certain amount of gravitas to it, because it is serious for the people in the house.

“I think what I’m bringing to the table is a certain amount of empathy. Sympathy is not the right word, because I don’t feel sorry for anyone on this show. They’ve all volunteered with their eyes wide open, the (U.S. version) has been on TV, they know what they’re getting into. But that said, the second they’re in that house, and the applause has died down, and there’s nothing to do but talk and be with other people and interact, it becomes really real and a little bit scary.

“So I definitely have empathy for the people and what they’re going to be going through, because audience members get the wrong idea that it’s easy. It’s a hard, hard thing these guys are going to do.”

As hard as trying to win the Stanley Cup or the Grey Cup or the Super Bowl or the World Series?

Well, the reporting side of it is very similar. But at least Big Brother Canada host Arisa Cox won’t have to venture into a sweaty locker room.

* Want to know who the Big Brother Canada contestants are? Click here. *

Bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

@billharris_tv

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