Television
Total 446 Posts
Back in December, I had Dr. Liza Egbogah on Toronto Mike'd to share the story of her experience on Dragon's Den. It was episode 965 and Dr. Liza spoke about how she struck a deal with Manjit Minhas but was "ghosted" over the following seven months. Dr. Liza told me
As a huge fan of SCTV, I really wanted to love Schitt's Creek, but I bailed after the first episode. It just didn't hold me, even with Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara and Get A Life's Chris Elliott! That was years ago, and now Schitt's Creek is the talk of the
Breakfast Television in Toronto has made a significant change to its on-air crew. Roger Petersen, who had been co-hosting with Dina Pugliese, has been relieved of his duties. Roger joined the Toronto Citytv team in 1999, undertaking a variety of roles including reporter, anchor and host of the car show
Ken Shaw, who has been on the air at CFTO / CTV Toronto for forty years, announced his retirement yesterday. His final newscast will be on January 6th. Why January 6? By working into 2020, Ken Shaw gets to make the claim he was at CTV News for parts of six
I watch a lot of pilots. I'll hear about a show people are digging, and I'll give it a try. More often than not, I bail after one episode because I'm not feeling it. Sometimes I'll give it three or four episodes before bailing, and if the show is as
Kevin Frankish, longtime co-host of City TV's Breakfast Television, announced this morning that Friday will be his last day on the program. Here's his announcement... A very difficult thing to tell you right now. https://t.co/fmzNXPNUZh— Kevin Frankish (@KevinFrankish) May 29, 2018Kevin hasn't yet disclosed why he's leaving
On March 14, 1987, Dave Hodge had had enough of the way decisions were being made at CBC Sports with regards to live sports programming. Here's footage of the last straw and the pen flip heard across the country. It really has become the stuff of legend, and I've been
My daughter is a typical teenager, only she doesn't turn thirteen for another three months. She had been urging me to watch 13 Reasons Why on Netflix because she wanted to talk about it. I had my marching orders, so I dove in. Initially, I treated the task as if
In September, I sat down with former-Citytv anchor Anne Mroczkowski for an episode of my podcast. She mentioned a video cassette of Speakers Corner outtakes the staff would watch at parties. I took a mental note that I had to see these outtakes. Brother Bill, a popular deejay at 102.
Rogers introduced Shomi as a Netflix alternative only two years ago, but is already shutting down the service. "We tried something new, and customers who used shomi loved it. It's like a great cult favourite with a fantastic core audience that unfortunately just isn't big enough to be renewed for
"A New York music executive in the 1970s hustles to make a career out of the city's diverse music scene." That's the description of Vinyl. With Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger on board as co-creators, they had my curiosity, but with the HBO seal of approval, they had my attention.
Ann Rohmer has been a fixture on Toronto television for decades. Before joining Citytv in 1986, she was a features reporter for Canada AM. At Citytv, she was the CityPulse Weekend sports anchor before joining David Onley as the first hosts of Breakfast Television on September 6, 1989. Ann hosted
Over six years ago, Ann Rohmer left her job at CP24 for a position in the aviation industry. (Note: It took me 6 years, but I finally have the untold true story about this retirement and will share it here another day.) Then, mere months later, Ann returned as if
CTV has announced that Canada AM will broadcast its final episode tomorrow. Canada AM first hit the airwaves on Sept. 11, 1972 as Canada’s first morning television news program and ran for 43 seasons. Your final Canada AM hosts are Beverly Thomson, Marci Ien and Jeff Hutcheson. Bell Media
I read every news item this morning with great skepticism. The morning of April 1 is when news organizations like to have fun with fake stories. When Breakfast Television posted this to their Facebook feed, I thought it was in very poor taste. What's funny about someone losing their job,
Twelve years ago, I sang the praises of Hammy Hamster. I remember fondly being mesmerized by Hammy Hamster. Hammy Hamster was the lead character in a television show entitled Hammy Hamster and he was indeed a hamster. Not a cartoon hamster, but an actual hamster. His best friend was G.
Surprise! Gord Martineau signed off as anchor of the six o’clock news for the last time today. There was no goodbye, no farewell tour, he signed off as normal and a press release was issued by Rogers. From the press release: Martineau began his career with City back in
Four years ago, I wrote about the sports fans dilemma when it comes to cable television. Basically, you're screwed. Yes, I'm well aware you can legally (and illegally) stream live sports, but at this point I just want to turn on Sportsnet or TSN or CBC and catch the game
I used to read Chris Zelkovich's column in the Star. The Toronto Star decided to eliminate the media critic role, and Zelkovich was cut. He now writes for Yahoo! (the exclamation mark is necessary) and just published an article about hockey ratings woes at Rogers. As he puts it, "the
CHCH TV has cancelled tonight's newscast. "The fear is the station is shutting down or being dramatically reduced." This is awful news for CHCH employees, which includes two-time Toronto Mike'd guest Mark Hebscher, but it's also sad news for those of us who grew up tuning in channel 11. I
We're learning now who has been cut as part of Bell Media's restructuring. The vast majority of those let go were behind the scenes, but I'm going to focus on those in front of the microphone and/or camera, known to those tuning in from Toronto. I'll update this entry
About five-and-a-half years ago, Ann Rohmer left her job at CP24 for a position in the aviation industry. Then, mere months later, Ann returned as if she had never left in the first place. I spoke to Steve Anthony about this in episode 123 of my podcast as he tried
At some point in the very early 90s (or was it the very late 80s?), I stumbled upon a YTV show called "The Ron Oliver Show". I was hooked. For some reason, this show tickled my funny bone. It was great fun while it lasted, which wasn't very long. I've
Meet John Wells, Jim Van Horne, Michael Landsberg and Terry Leibel from your new TSN. British gymnastics!
According to Numeris research, total playoff ratings were down 20% in 2015. This is despite the fact five Canadian teams made the playoffs this year, with two advancing to the second round. Rogers, in the first year of their monster 12-year, $5.2 billion dollar deal, predicted a 20% increase
