Emily Hampshire, Priyanka join cast of ‘Heated Rivalry’ Season 2

TORONTO - Actress Emily Hampshire, comedian Sabrina Jalees and drag queen Priyanka have signed on for roles in the second season of Crave's steamy hockey series "Heated Rivalry."

Hampshire, best known for her role as Stevie in "Schitt's Creek," has been cast as Vanessa, while Jalees will play Farah Jalali.

Priyanka, who won the first season of "Canada's Drag Race," will play Tarek, while Robert Naylor, who voiced D.W. Read in "Arthur" as a child, has been cast as Wyatt Hayes and Swedish actor Edvin Ryding will play Luca Haas.

The casting announcement doesn't include descriptions of the characters, but fans can take some hints from "Game Changers," the series of books on which the show is based.

Calgary Flames games get new radio home with Corus Entertainment

CALGARY - Calgary Flames games have a new radio home.

Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) and Corus Entertainment announced Wednesday a five-year broadcast deal to carry Flames games on QR Calgary 770 AM.

Rogers Sports and Media shut down Sportsnet 960, which had carried Flames games, and Calgary sister station 660 NewsRadio in July as part of cuts that closed six radio stations in Calgary, Vancouver, Halifax and Kitchener and eliminated 230 jobs.

All Flames home and road games will be broadcast on 770 AM under the new agreement.

The pods are heading north: Netflix’s ‘Love Is Blind’ is coming to Canada

Canadians are finally getting their shot at finding their future spouse through a wall.

Netflix announced Tuesday that “Love Is Blind” is coming to Canada.

The hit reality series puts single men and women in isolated pods where they "date" and apparently fall in love without ever seeing each other. The catch is they must get engaged before meeting face-to-face.

The original U.S. version of “Love Is Blind” premiered in 2020 and became a pandemic-era breakout, eventually spawning adaptations around the world, including in Japan, Brazil, Sweden, the U.K., Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.

New couple on ‘Heated Rivalry’ S2 to be played by Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie

TORONTO - "Heated Rivalry" has its new heartthrobs.

Crave says Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie have been cast as Harris Drover and Troy Barrett, the couple at the centre of the fifth book in the "Game Changer" series on which the TV show is based.

Crave says Smith and Gillespie join the cast in "leading roles" for the second season on the smash-hit romance series.

The streamer says the season will focus on two couples — Shane and Ilya, portrayed by Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, who starred in the first season, and Harris and Troy, who feature in the book "Role Model."

CBC reveals fall schedule, including new Neil Peart doc, ‘North of North’ air date

TORONTO - CBC TV says its smash hit "North of North" will return for its second season with two back-to-back episodes on Sept. 8.

The public broadcaster is announcing its fall schedule, and says the fifth and final season of "Son of a Critch" will also return on the same date in its Tuesday evening time-slot, leading into "North of North."

CBC says its documentary series "The Passionate Eye" will return Sept. 23 with "Neil Peart: No One's Disciple."

The broadcaster says the doc about the Rush drummer, who died in January 2020, features "archival footage, intimate reflections and extraordinary live performances."

Peter Mansbridge says ‘the GOAT’ Lloyd Robertson changed the face of TV news

TORONTO - Peter Mansbridge says the Canadian public owes Lloyd Robertson a debt of gratitude.

Robertson, the longtime face of CTV News who died Tuesday at age 92, argued that anchors should be considered true journalists, not just orators. 

"This guy changed the face of television journalism in our country. And for a lot of younger people now, they don't recognize that. But those of us who were there and have benefited from it all, realize that," Mansbridge said on a video call Wednesday morning.

Mansbridge worked with Robertson in the early 1970s, and said the newsman's departure from CBC in 1976 was "an important milestone in the history of television broadcasting in Canada."

TV with kick, secrets, rebellion and green rings

Deep into a summer with endless-seeming heat waves, squadrons of both mosquitoes and dragonflies, and a dearth of insect repellent, here is a richly varied smorgasbord of TV, new and returning, to illuminate your shade-darkened viewing spaces. Also, remember to hydrate.

• Ted Lasso (Season 4 premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on Apple TV)

It’s the return of the nice guy, the can-do guy, the BELIEVE guy! But enough of that feel-good stuff. There are questions to be answered when the soccer-is-life series returns! How and why does Ted (Jason Sudeikis) leave the U.S. to go back to the U.K. to coach the AFC Richmond women’s team after having quit the Richmond men’s team at the end of Season 3? What fresh stories will the show come up with to avoid a female rewind of the first three seasons, good as those stories were? And finally how will Hannah Waddington gear down from the fun assassin role in Prime Video’s excellent new series Ride or Die back to the buttoned-down AFC team owner Rebecca Welton? Shall we all find out together?

• The Shards (series premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on FX, and the next day on Disney+/Hulu)

What to Stream: ‘Devil Wears Prada 2,’ Ariana Grande, ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ and ‘Diarra from Detroit’

The “Devil Wears Prada 2" and Ariana Grande's new album are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” “Diarra from Detroit” and Lollapalooza, from the comfort of wherever you choose to watch it.

New movies to stream from July 27-August 2

— Coming two decades after the original, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” (Wednesday, July 29 on Hulu and Disney+) re-teams Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt in another trip through the high-fashion Manhattan world of Runway Magazine. With more than $688 million in worldwide ticket sales, the 20-years-later sequel was a hit at the box office. In it, Hathaway’s Andy returns to Runway to help save it from a sad media fate. In my review, I wrote that “mid-life career changes aren’t nearly as compelling or relatable as a newbie assistant thrown into the high-fashion fire.” 

Hudson Williams show ‘YAGA’, new ‘Carrie’ adaptation to screen at TIFF

TORONTO - "YAGA," the next TV project featuring "Heated Rivalry" star Hudson Williams, will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The forthcoming Crave show, which also stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Noah Reid, is a modern spin on the Baba Yaga folk tale adapted from Kat Sandler's play of the same name.

The announcement came as TIFF unveiled its Primetime program of TV series that will play the festival.

The lineup also includes the world premieres of Mike Flanagan's TV adaptation of Stephen King's "Carrie" for Prime Video starring Canadian actress Summer H. Howell; and the Newfoundland-set, Josh Hartnett-starring Netflix series "Below."

TV lineup promises pugilism, pickleball and partying

A look ahead to They Fight, The Dink, 72 Hours, Furious, The Devil’s Mouth.

Reimagined Little House still shot through with the truth

In 1974, NBC had to issue a press release explaining why Michael Landon, starring as Charles (Pa) Ingalls on the new show Little House on the Prairie, didn’t have a beard.

Fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House books, on which the series was based, objected to Landon’s clean-shaven face. The real Charles Ingalls famously had a beard (a wild one, at that), and Pa certainly has a beard on the page, as illustrated by Garth Williams.

My point is: Lauraheads have always had their bugbears when it comes to adaptations.

Netflix’s new Little House on the Prairie, which dropped on July 9, is no exception. Among the criticisms I have seen: Mary (Skywalker Hughes) isn’t blond. Jack the dog isn’t a bulldog. Laura (Alice Halsey) wouldn’t have a slingshot and she wouldn’t wear a boy’s hat. And she wouldn’t have an Osage pal named Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts).

12 states challenge Paramount’s takeover of Warner, say merger would ‘extinguish competition’

NEW YORK (AP) — Twelve states sued to block Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday, arguing that the $81 billion merger would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers across the U.S.

“Audiences on every sofa and in every movie (theater) seat would feel the impact of this unlawful merger,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the case, said in a news conference from Los Angeles. He said the deal would result in higher prices, fewer movies and TV shows and lower quality of content overall.

A Paramount-Warner combo would bring together two of Hollywood's last five legacy studios. It would also mean putting Warner's HBO Max, libraries filled with fan favorites like “Harry Potter” and even CNN under the same roof of Paramount-owned CBS and the Paramount+ streaming service.

In Monday's complaint, the states said such a tie-up would also “inflict substantial harm” on movie theatres and basic cable distributors. Bonta's office said the states are asking Warner and Paramount to not close this merger “until after the judicial process concludes." And if the companies do not agree, the coalition would then file a temporary restraining order.

Jacob Tierney takes first crack at unscripted TV with foul-mouthed Alberta brothers

Jacob Tierney is used to directing actors on scripted television. But with his latest project, the creator of Crave's "Heated Rivalry" is venturing into unscripted TV for the first time, teaming up with a pair of foul-mouthed yet family-oriented brothers from Alberta.

The Montreal-born filmmaker serves as an executive producer on Prime Video's new reality series "Young Farts Trailer Parts." At Amazon's Upfront presentation in May, Tierney joked that the show's stars — brothers Jagger Glowatsky and his younger sibling, Dawson — wouldn't listen to a word he said.

"Nobody does what I say. I don't like it," Tierney laughed while on stage during the press event.

"It was a whole learning curve for me in the land of, you know, planning out an unscripted show is kind of taking what you know about these guys, what they do well and try to give them the right platform to genuinely be themselves."

‘Summer House’ reality TV franchise is coming to Canada, will debut on Hayu in 2027

Things are heating up in cottage country as "Summer House Canada"
begins production.

Hayu announced Thursday that the NBCUniversal reality show will make its first international expansion with a Canadian edition.

The hit Bravo show follows a group of New York City professionals who share a summer house in the Hamptons, and the relationship drama that ensues among them. It recently concluded its 10th season, and on Wednesday earned its first Emmy nomination for best unstructured reality show. 

The Canadian series will continue the U.S format but will trade in the Hamptons for Muskoka, Ont. It will follow a group of friends who leave the city to stay in a shared house surrounded by serene beauty and waterfront cottages.

New ‘Little House’ series explores complicated history but keeps heart, community at the center

It's a story with covered wagons and one room schoolhouses, but showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine says the “Little House on the Prairie” remake for Netflix still speaks to today's American dream.

The show, premiering Thursday and set in the late 1800s, follows the Ingalls family led by Charles and Caroline and their two daughters Mary and Laura — as they settle in the American frontier. It's adapted from a series of semi-autobiographical books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder about her own family's pioneer life. In 1974, Michael Landon co-created the TV series based on the books where he played Pa alongside Melissa Gilbert as Laura. It aired for nine seasons. In the new version, Luke Bracey plays Pa and Alice Halsey is Laura.

Sonnenshine says the same frontier spirit from back then is baked into how Americans see themselves, even today.

“This idea of rugged individualism is the cornerstone of American mythos,” Sonnenshine says. “It's still manifesting in our lives constantly … We're real go-getters.”