Channel Canada at the 2013 Upfronts

For the second year in a row, Channel Canada’s Melissa Dupuis was happy to attend Bell Media and Shaw Media’s Upfront presentations held last week in Toronto. This is her account of the two days she spent there. Thanks Melissa!

After last year’s experience, I was excited to return to the Canadian Upfronts, this time around with a slightly better idea of what to expect. My first day was spent with Shaw, first at their press conference in the morning, where a strong focus was placed on specialty programming, which provided some often surprising results this past year. Though Big Brother Canada was as big a hit for Slice as expected, History’s Vikings and The Bible were unlooked for hits for Shaw, which is understandably working even more aggressively on developing its specialty networks. Numerous new shows are slated for the existing channels, including Alan Thicke’s new reality series In the Thicke of It poised to follow his family’s daily life, as well as sophomore seasons for both Big Brother and Vikings. Shaw is also launching a new “lifestyle” (read reality) channel, DTOUR, which boasts a strange array of programs, including the hotel renovation show Hotel Impossible, and Rock My RV with Brett Michaels, which does exactly what it says on the tin.

Shaw’s Upfront presentation, which I am starting to become convinced is trying to drain the power from an entire city block, was as flashy and blindingly bright, but with perhaps fewer showgirls than last year. Opening with a really excellent Bohemian Rhapsody parody sumarizing Shaw’s strongest shows and upcoming hits, and following it up with the incredibly dynamic Queen Latifah, joining Global’s daytime programming with The Queen Latifah Show, Shaw struck a great balance between giving a strong sales pitch and keeping their audience entertained. They limited their giveaways this year to a surf board and a trip to Hawaii, presented very sweetly by Daniel Dae Kim, who has now been happily stationed there for nearly a decade, first through Lost and now Hawaii Five-0. Along with the focus on specialty channels, Shaw also presented some of their new primetime shows, including Ironside, reworked from its original incarnation and now starring Blair Underwood as the title character, The Michael J Fox Show based on the actor’s own family and professional life, and The Blacklist, a classic “detective works with criminal” deal. I did specify fewer showgirls earlier rather than none, because Alan Thicke closed out the show with a fantastically ridiculous song and dance number about the quality of not only the lineup, but also his own talent, surrounded by showgirls, cops, firemen and more; it was pretty great.

While Shaw focused mostly on specialty programming, Bell’s focus was squarely on their main channels, CTV and CTV 2, though the star of the show was clearly new acquisition The Amazing Race Canada and host Jon Montgomery. Their new shows particularly included a host of new comedies, including The Goldbergs, an family sitcom set in the eighties, whose young stars Troy Gentile, Sean Giambrone and Hayley Orrantia were in attendence to promote, and Mixology, an interesting idea for a sitcom whereby all 10 episodes of its run will take place over one night in a bar.

Bell’s Upfront presentation was really quite long, and focussed on spectacle more than anything. Following criticism aimed at last year’s event, Bell apparently opted to up the showmanship with nearly 90 solid minutes of performances by Cirque du Soleil, with whom Bell signed a production deal a year ago, star lineups, and show clips, dialing way back on the actual sales pitch, which they relegated mostly to a booklet handed out to guests. Deciding to let their shows speak for themselves, Bell showed long reels of their upcoming shows, including two more standouts, the highly anticipated Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hostages. Still perplexing to me for the second year in a row, however, is Bell’s habit of bringing in a slew of stars from their network (over 50 this year) and have many of them do little more than stand on stage and wave to the crowd, or in Shemar Moore’s case, display his abs to general fan approval. Bell is clearly eager to demonstrate the star power they command, but it stands in sharp contrast to Shaw, which brings in a smaller number of stars and has them actually participate in the presentation. Whatever the case, Bell’s posse of celebrities certainly comes in handy at the reception following the presentation, where photo ops are available with select stars, photo ops which I freely admit to being the cause of some strife between myself and my friend Maria as we tried to navigate the schedule and the packed room (she was quite devastated to miss Eric Dane.) At least this year my e-mail didn’t eat my pictures and I have something to remember another great set of Upfronts by.

2013 Upfront Presentation Photo Gallery

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Channel Canada would like to thank Bell Media and Shaw Media for inviting us again this year. Due to unforseen circumstances, we were unable to attend CHCH and Rogers Media’s Upfront but we would like to thank them for their invitation.