The Hits Keep on Coming at #BellMediaUpfront, as Exec Justin Stockman Highlights What's Back and What's New - Bell Media (2024)

By BILL HARRISSpecial to The LedeFrom “Trackers” to “Traitors,” there was tons of television to talk about on Thursday at the 2024 #BellMediaUpfront in Toronto.Many major announcements were made, including Bell Media’s original programming slate for 2024/25, and CTV’s 2024/25 schedule. And an impressive collection of talent was on hand, including Justin Hartley, star of the hit CTV series TRACKER, Karine Vanasse, host of both the English and French versions of THE TRAITORS CANADA, Wendi McLendon-Covey from the upcoming CTV comedy ST. DENIS MEDICAL, and Gabriel Luna from HBO’s THE LAST OF US, which is on Crave.Hartley, the beloved American actor whose character in TRACKER – Colter Shaw – specializes in finding lost items or people, was asked if he had made the trip to Canada on a secret tracking mission.“No, this is strictly personal business,” Hartley said. “Oddly enough, the show is shot in Vancouver, B.C., and the surrounding area, and I think there was one episode in Season 1 where we jumped the border from the U.S. and went into Canada. But truthfully, we’re in Canada all the time.”But would Colter Shaw actually have the proper documentation to cross an international border, one way or the other?“I don’t think he would need it,” Hartley instantly quipped. “I don’t think they would even know he was coming. And there would be no record of him ever being there. Colter who? What are you talking about? Canada? Never been.”Justin Stockman, VP, Content Development & Programming for Bell Media, pointed to TRACKER and many other returning shows – both originals and acquisitions – on CTV and Crave as strong evidence of sustained successful strategies.“Our hit rate is very good,” Stockman said. “There’s a lot coming back, and I think that’s a great story. We’ve got more coming from the SHORESY and LETTERKENNY universe, because that continues to work. We are so happy with how LATE BLOOMER did for Crave in Season 1, and Season 2 is coming. THE TRADES is probably our biggest new success this year. It has done so incredibly well on Crave, beating almost everything, so it’s a great Canadian success story. Then there’s THE AMAZING RACE CANADA, obviously, which just always seems to be the No. 1 show in the summer.”Stockman then turned his attention to one of the most talked-about shows of the past year, THE TRAITORS CANADA.“We are so happy with how Season 1 turned out,” Stockman said. “Getting in on a format this early is sort of unique for us. Usually Canadians wait a few seasons to see if it continues to grow in the U.S. But I think we caught this one at the right time, because I’m sure Season 2 will be even bigger, as the concept, and all the different versions around the world, are really catching a lot of attention. It still has lots of room to grow. This one hasn’t peaked. We got in early enough that it’ll continue to get bigger. That’s the plan.”Stockman added that following the pandemic, as well as the writers’ and actors’ strikes, he’s looking forward to something of a “normal fall” in the TV world for the first time in the 2020s.“Some of the shows that are premiering this fall, we actually bought last year,” said Stockman, referring to series such as HIGH POTENTIAL starring Kaitlin Olson, and RESCUE: HI-SURF from producer John Wells. “And some of those shows have longer production cycles, especially the ones for Crave, where they take months and months to shoot. So really, the creative schedule is just back to normal starting this summer. That’s not a surprise, given the circ*mstances, but I think everyone has been eager to move on. So it was really nice to go to the screenings this year and see a bunch of stuff, so much more volume, and talk about a normal fall. I think it’s exciting, because Bell Media is really well positioned, with all the right assets. We’ve got lots of options, lots of great brands, and lots of different ways we can pivot.”Looking ahead to new programming, here’s what Stockman had to say about some of the biggest originals and acquisitions that are on the way:ORIGINALSSUPER TEAM CANADASTOCKMAN: “I am very happy to see how fast this is moving along, because animation can take such a long time. We have some big star power. It’s super tongue-in-cheek. The idea is that all the other superheroes in the world are gone, so now the world must rely on Canada. It’s playing into Canadian stereotypes, in terms of what the rest of the world might think of Canada. There’s a robot that actually looks like a Canada Post mailbox. There’s a guy who shoots poutine out of his hands. There’s a Sasquatch. It’s all very Canadian on-the-nose in that way.”BON COP, BAD COPSTOCKMAN: “This is with Colm Feore and Patrick Huard from the movie, it’s the two of them, and Patrick is the lead writer on it. There’s also a second generation story weaved into it. It’s a perfect bilingual show, with Crave being a bilingual product. The movie was half in English, half in French, and this series will be the same thing. Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2 came out six or seven years ago, which did really well again. This was pitched to us a couple of years ago, and we were like, ‘we’ll take it.’ But honestly, I think part of it is, Patrick is a massive star in Québec, and he is very, very busy, so a lot of it has just been him trying to find time, because he is so in demand.”SLAYCATIONSTOCKMAN: “It was shot this winter, and it’ll be for later this year, when it’s cold enough that it makes sense to have a wintery show. It’s basically us working with the producers of DRAG RACE to create a new format. We’re taking characters known from the various DRAG RACE franchises and putting them together in a new location, on a trip. And so in this case, we shot it at Blue Mountain this past winter, and they’re in a cabin, and doing all sorts of wintery challenges, but it’s also just the dynamic of them all being in a house together.”DRAG BRUNCH SAVED MY LIFESTOCKMAN: “This is something we worked on with Priyanka, the Season 1 winner of CANADA’S DRAG RACE, ETALK’s special contributor, and now one of the stars of HBO’s WE’RE HERE. We obviously want to be in the Priyanka business, because Priyanka continues to become more and more known around the world. We basically said to Priyanka, ‘what type of show would you want to do?’ It’s basically in the spirit of RESTAURANT MAKEOVER, where Priyanka and a team of experts visit restaurants looking to boost their business, and the solution is always, ‘why don’t you do a drag brunch?’ ”MARK MCKINNEY NEEDS A HOBBYSTOCKMAN: “Is this a show or a statement? I guess it’s both. Mark McKinney obviously is a comedy legend here in Canada, but he has also enjoyed quite a renaissance with younger generations – for example, my 13-year-old daughter knows exactly who he is because she has watched every episode of SUPERSTORE. So this show is basically him hunting around and talking to people with unique and interesting hobbies. It’s a light format, sort of a docuseries mixed with a format, where you meet different interesting people and get his commentary and reactions to all of it.”SO LONG, MARIANNESTOCKMAN: “This is specifically about Leonard Cohen’s relationship with a woman named Marianne, from the famous song, and their love affair that takes place in Greece. It’s about the tumultuousness of their relationship, and his 1960s ideals, and how that all works in a relationship. I have only seen a few clips, but many members of my team have now seen full episodes, and everyone is very, very excited. This is going to be our next big dramatic limited Crave series that’s going to stand up to what we were able to pull off with LITTLE BIRD, as far as quality goes, and alongside all those great HBO series that we have as well.”BAD TRIPSSTOCKMAN: “This has been in the hopper for a while, but there was quite a bit of reporting done on this story, about one of the employees at Vice Media – in the heyday of Vice, which is now quite a while ago – who was running, as a side hustle, an international drug trafficking trade out of the Toronto office. So it’s that story, including what happened with some of the junior employees who were caught up in it.”QUEEN OF THE CASTLESTOCKMAN: “This is Ann K. Mulholland, who is known for being on THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF TORONTO. Basically, as a hobby, she and her husband collect real estate – which sounds like a great hobby. They have bought themselves a castle, or a giant manor, or whatever you want to call it, in the U.K. And it’s their journey to renovate it, and just sort of her larger-than-life personality dealing with all this stress, and renovating something as over-the-top as a castle.”REVIVALSTOCKMAN: “I’ve read the script, and if it’s possible to do a fresh twist on zombies, this is it.”MADE FOR TV WITH BOMAN MARTINEZ-REIDSTOCKMAN: “While a show such as LATE BLOOMER is a pure dramedy, and quite clearly a scripted show, MADE FOR TV is more of a show that makes you ask, ‘is it unscripted, or is it a format?’ It’s sort of in that grey zone, but it’s definitely comedic. Boman, also known as the Bomanizer, is one of the biggest TikTok stars in the world, and he is from Toronto. He has made his name by mimicking reality shows, and what he sees on TV. So we were like, let’s give him a TV show and see what he does with that. It’s hard to tell if the Boman character is actually Boman, or a character, which is sort of the whole schtick of his entire social media presence. That translates to a TV show where he’s learning how to do different television-related jobs, and he’s very, very overconfident. In each of these different situations, he learns that there’s more to it. Well … I don’t know if he actually learns. But comedy ensues when the people he’s supposed to be learning from come to realize just how overconfident he is. It’s part reality show, part scripted comedy. It’s blending those two formats. But it’s really just leaning into this well-known character, but putting him in a different situation. We didn’t want to just mimic what happens on social media. So this format is just another way for him to sort of shine.”THE OFFICE MOVERSSTOCKMAN: “This is another one that we talked about last year when it was just a PowerPoint presentation, but it’s a show now, and it’s just as funny as we had hoped. Jae and Trey Richards, for people who are familiar with them from the digital world, they really understand what comedy works for them, and what they can do. They’ve created a world for themselves where some of the characters that have been seen in their previous social media incarnations show up. But it’s basically them as office movers, with the weird ins and outs of that world. You know when you’re working in an office, and sometimes you’ll just see people moving the furniture? This is the story behind those people. And it’s based on a real previous job that they had in their lives.”ACQUISITIONSDR. ODYSSEYSTOCKMAN: “Ryan Murphy obviously knows how to make a drama that’s got a good mix of a little bit of campiness, while also handling serious topics, and sometimes with a procedural element as well. We like Joshua Jackson, and we think he’s the perfect sort of star for a network show. And then you’ve got the double generation thing, with Don Johnson in there as well. It was described to us as, ‘HOUSE meets LOVE BOAT.’ And we were like, ‘okay, we’ll watch that.’ Everything Ryan Murphy does seems to come from a true love of the medium. So I have faith, he rarely fails, and this seems to have all the right recipes. We’re hoping this is going to be the big hit of the fall.”GEORGIE AND MANDY’S FIRST MARRIAGESTOCKMAN: “For those who are familiar with THE BIG BANG THEORY, Georgie gets married multiple times, and I think several times to Mandy. So that’s what the title is about. I think the show is trying to tee up that each season will be a different part of Georgie’s many relationships, but Mandy is always a prominent person in his life. Obviously, we had to get this show. We are deeply invested in THE BIG BANG THEORY and YOUNG SHELDON universe, so there was no doubt that we were going to pick it up.”ST. DENIS MEDICALSTOCKMAN: “This is very much in the spirit of PARKS AND RECREATION and THE OFFICE. Allison Tolman plays the main character that you’re sort of following around, because she’s a nurse who recently got a promotion. It’s a typical workplace comedy, with all the wacky people that work there, including characters played by Wendi McLendon-Covery and David Alan Grier. There’s a lot more jokes than there is plot, which is great. I can say, for the jaded group of media executives in the room, there was tons of laughter. They showed us the first episode last year, and then the show didn’t happen because of the strikes. And so this year, we got to see the second episode, and it was even better. This show was pretty hot at the screenings, there were multiple people trying to get it, so we’re very happy that we did. This feels like it could be one that goes on for a while.”HAPPY’S PLACESTOCKMAN: “We wanted this show. The ratings for THE VOICE last year were great, and we do think a lot of it was Reba McEntire, where we saw a bit of a bounce upwards. Reba just seems to work for TV viewers, so our attitude was, ‘if she has a new sitcom, we’ll take it.’ And it’s just perfectly on brand for her. We joked about it in the room. We said if you went to Reba’s fans and asked them specifically what they would want to see in a Reba sitcom, this would be the result. It’s crafted for her audience. If you are into this type of comedy, it’s perfectly executed.”LONG BRIGHT RIVERSTOCKMAN: “This is based on a bestselling novel, and it features a great performance from Amanda Seyfried as a cop with a family secret, and Nicholas Pinnock as her former partner. There’s a thriller element, as well as a thoughtful storyline about the opioid crisis in America.”SCAMANDASTOCKMAN: “This is a docuseries that’s basically one of those juicy, true-crime shows, based on a podcast. It’s about a woman who scammed people, and a bunch of charities, and had a GoFundMe, for an illness that she didn’t actually have.”THE SUMMITSTOCKMAN: “We were onto this one early, because it’s a new-ish format, based on an Australian series, where it’s kind of like THE AMAZING RACE or SURVIVOR, but it’s on a mountain. You reach different points climbing the mountain and people get voted off. And then as you work your way up to the prize money at the top, they’ve game-ified the whole thing. It’s a pretty propulsive format.”billharristv@gmail.com@billharris_tv

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