brioux.tv: the podcast

Claire Rankin says she's waited "a really long time...to land something like this." The PEI native is talking about her role as Mary on Son of a Critch. How she landed the role -- after one of those remote zoom call auditions -- is just one of the stories she shares on this hour-long podcast. Season Four finds Mary -- and Rankin -- out of the kitchen and in the thick of it. On this Tuesday's episode (CBC, CBCGem), Mary has a mid-life crisis. In a few weeks, she's going back to school. L...

02-17

01:05:07

Saturday Night Live is celebrating the big 5-0. Who better to put it in perspective than the Canadian writer who was there at the start. On this special presentation from brioux.tv: the podcast and LateNighter, Rosie Shuster tells how it all began. She was born with a funny bone as the daughter of Frank Shuster (half of the comedy team of Wayne & Shuster). She meets Lorne Michaels at junior high, he falls for Rosie, and Lorne then soaks up every showbiz lesson he can from her dad. ...

02-10

56:15

OK, Hearties, here he is, Jack Wagner who plays Bill Avery on When Calls the Heart. The former soap star has played the sheriff-turned-judge character for 12 seasons on the Langley, BC-based Hallmark and Super Channel series. As viewers will see on the Saturday, Feb. 8 episode, Avery will be re-introduced to Georgie McGill, played by special guest star Melissa Gilbert whose credits date all the way back to her child star days on Little House on the Prairie. 'Bout time Avery got in on th...

02-06

41:45

If ever we needed some candid talk from Rick Mercer, we need it now. The CBC Hall of Famer didn't hold back when I spoke with him last summer in St. John's on the set of Son of a Critch. The native son plays Mark Sr.'s new VOCM radio station boss on the CBC sitcom. Catch the episode this Tuesday (also on CBCGem). Mercer was delighted to be back before many familiar faces among the crew. He is, of course, an original alumni of Mark Critch's other series, This Hour Has 22 Minutes. After ...

02-03

26:26

This episode is the second to feature a cast member from Season 4 of Son of a Critch: none other than the son himself, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth. Ainsworth, of course, plays young Mark Critch, circa 1990, on the CBC sitcom. The episode was recorded last summer on location in St. John's, Nfld. Ainsworth was shooting a scene on a residential street closed off for the production. Also there was Sophia Powers, who plays Mark's girlfriend Fox. The two are trying to navigate high school this season,...

01-27

31:18

Monday January 20 is inauguration day in the US. So everybody raise your right hand, and for those listening here at home, hang onto those Canadian passports. A dozen years ago The Donald was just another tanned game show host when I interviewed him in his 26th floor office at Trump Tower in New York. Now I've reached into the vault and fired up the time machine to bring you a conversation about TV, the world in general and why he feels both always need a bad guy. The Apprentice host went di...

01-19

24:11

The second season of the slick crime series Allegiance begins January 15 on CBC and CBC Gem. The shot-in-Surrey, B.C., drama stars Supinder Wraich (Sort Of), Enrico Colantoni and Samer Salem. I spoke with all three in Toronto at the CBC Winter Media Launch in December. Wraich plays Sabrina Sohal, a promising rookie police officer who fights to serve her hometown. Rico is the seasoned cop who mentors her past the hurdles of a flawed justice system. In Season Two, Sohal graduates to...

01-13

38:40

No man is an island. Allan Hawco's new series, however, is shot and set on an archipelago of eight islands represented by the French government off the coast of Newfoundland. Hawco, who played a detective on Republic of Doyle and was also on Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, plays Donny "Fitz" Fitzpatrick. He's a cop who gets too nosy about police secrets and is therefore banished to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. There he is paired with local police officer Geneviève "Arch" Archambault (Joséphine J...

01-06

42:33

This Hour has, well, not just 22 Minutes but a full hour as I catch up with Mark Critch, this week's guest on brioux.tv: the podcast. The conversation was taped last summer in St. John's, Nfld., during production on the fourth season of Son of a Critch (returning Tuesday, Jan. 7 on CBC and CBC Gem). What a trip that was, including a visit from a guy who was once Critch's snowboard instructor -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Now both men are going downhill this winter! Speaking of which, we ...

12-30

59:15

Genevieve Mushaluk, a 33-year-old corporate lawyer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, had her torch snuffed on last week’s two-hour, second-last episode of Survivor. Picked as the final member of the jury, she’ll be in LA watching the finale with the rest of the castaways when the season ends December 18 on CBS and Global. Did she see her elimination coming? Does she have any regrets? Will she ever eat rice again? And what about all those snakes and spiders?? Mushaluk tells all in this shorter than usu...

12-18

28:20

My guest this week has made over three dozen made for television movies, She also headlined Hallmark’s Aurora Teagarden series. Before that, as a child star, she was part of the long-running TGIF family series, Full House, as well as its streaming sequel, Fuller House. Of course I’m talking about Candace Cameron Bure. In 2022, she broke away from Hallmark and joined the Great American Family network. There she is not just one of its busiest stars, she is also a very hands-on Chief Content Off...

12-16

38:01

If you work in this industry you know how hard it is to keep ahead in a world that always seems to be pivoting. Streaming, fast channels, multi-platform media brands – who can keep up? Well, one fella is Jamie Schouela, President, Global Channels and Media at Blue Ant Media. I caught up with Jamie a few weeks ago in Toronto when I was asked to moderate a CTAM panel on the future of the industry from a cable perspective. He leads the strategic direction and operations for the company's s...

12-09

57:36

As we head into another frigid Canadian winter we bring you a podcast about a series that is set and shot in the hottest part of Australia. The series is called Troppo, a term used in north Queensland that means going mad from the heat. Troppo is based on the best selling novel from Candice Fox titled Crimson Lake and it is about a disgraced American ex-cop played by Thomas Jane (HBO's Hung) hired to help an Australian private investigator. They are teamed together on murder...

12-02

28:51

After 31 years as host of The Fifth Estate, plus another decade winning Emmys for CBS and NBC News, award-winning investigative journalist Bob McKeown is ready to retire. The Ottawa native never shied away from his assignments, especially when it came to reporting on football and head injuries. Back in the '70s, he was a CFL all-star centre for the Ottawa Rough Riders. He is without a doubt the only three-time recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award to have also won a Grey Cup. On this ...

11-25

50:14

Tyler and Jordie Schwartz started their business of selling retro toys and gifts in 2007 as the Canadian Leg Lamp Company. The idea came after shooting their fan film “Road Trip for Ralphie,” an homage to the kid from the 1983 classic, “A Christmas Story.” Next they introduced Moose Mugs from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (1989). Seventeen years later, they’ve branched out to all kinds of retro goodies, including toys, candy, books, games, ugly sweaters and much more. You’ll find t...