Original slate includes seven new series and three renewals for Cottage Life, T+E, BBC Earth, BBC First and Smithsonian Channel in Canada
Cottage Life’s highest-rated original series, Life Below Zero: Canada, returns for Season 2
New slate marks the first time Blue Ant Media has commissioned originals for BBC First and BBC Earth in Canada
Cottage Life’s highest-rated original series, Life Below Zero: Canada, Season 2, premieres in spring 2022 during the channel’s nationwide free preview event.
(Toronto, ON – September 16, 2021) – To mark Blue Ant Media’s 10-year anniversary this September, the international producer, distributor and channel operator announced today 10 new and returning originals to premiere on its portfolio of Canadian specialty networks. The new premium programming lineup includes outdoor lifestyle and survival shows, paranormal anthology series, compelling documentaries and relevant specials with several programs available for licensing globally by Blue Ant International. Overseen by Sam Linton, Head of Original Content, Blue Ant Media, the new commissioning slate will begin airing on the media company’s Canadian channels this fall and into 2022, with several series premiering during nationwide free preview events.
“We’re so proud to celebrate 10 years of storytelling at Blue Ant Media. Over that time, our roster of Canadian specialty channels has truly evolved into a premium lineup of household names, such as Smithsonian Channel, BBC Earth and BBC First; and homegrown brands that include Cottage Life and T+E,” says Craig Junner, VP, Programming, Canadian Media, Blue Ant Media. “Over the past decade, we have been committed to delivering premium, entertaining programming that tells diverse stories from Canada and around the world with our partners and some of the best filmmakers out there. We’re so pleased to unveil our latest slate of specials, documentaries and anthology series that we know will resonate with our highly engaged audience.”
Cottage Life’s highest-rated original, Life Below Zero: Canada (Season 2; World Broadcast Premiere), has been renewed for a second season. Based on the Emmy® Award-winning format Life Below Zero, created and produced by BBC Studios’ Los Angeles production arm, the Canadian adaptation follows a diverse group of individuals surviving in the coldest and most remote regions of Canada. The second installment is co-produced by Blue Ant Media, Quebecor Content and APTN. Also returning to Cottage Life, the Blue Ant Media and APTN co-production Merchants of the Wild (Season 4; Broadcast Premiere) has been renewed for a fourth season. The series follows six Indigenous Adventurers who spend 25 days living off the land in the vast territory known to the L’nu (Mi’kmaq) people as Kespukwitk (lands end), and known to non-Indigenous people as the Southern Nova Scotia. They must use the teachings from the L’nu’k Elders and Knowledge Holders, who they meet along the way, to help them on their journey and reconnect to who they are as Indigenous Peoples. Finally, Blue Ant Media has greenlit a third installment of Ice Vikings (Season 3; World Broadcast Premiere), which follows fearless descendants of Icelandic Vikings as they battle the elements to keep ice fishing alive on Manitoba’s Lake Winnipeg, reeling in big fish and fat paycheques along the way. Blue Ant Media has also acquired Seasons 1 and 2 of the Ice Vikings franchise to air on Cottage Life. Both Life Below Zero: Canada, Season 2 and Ice Vikings, Season 3 are scheduled to premiere on Cottage Life during the channel’s nationwide free preview event in spring 2022.
On T+E, Canada’s home to paranormal programming, the new original anthology series Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life (Season 1; Canadian Broadcast Premiere) examines horrifying real-life stories of hauntings experienced by everyday people. Executive produced by the award-winning film director, producer, writer and actor Eli Roth (Inglourious Basterds, Hostel, The Last Exorcism) and Cream Productions, the Blue Ant Media and discovery+ co-production features chilling eyewitness accounts and dramatic reconstructions reminiscent of Roth’s vivid cinematic masterpieces. Also new on T+E, The Lost Colony of Roanoke (Season 1; Canadian Broadcast Premiere), follows a team of archaeologists as they dig for evidence that could help solve one of America’s oldest and most controversial mysteries: what happened to the English colony on Roanoke Island? Featuring exclusive interviews, never-before-seen archaeological evidence and cutting-edge scientific analysis, the series offers compelling theories on the fate of the first European colony in the Americas, who settled on Roanoke Island in 1587 and suddenly vanished without a trace. The Lost Colony of Roanoke will premiere in spring 2022 during T+E’s nationwide free preview event.
The new documentary series Griff’s Great Canadian Adventure (Canadian Broadcast Premiere) marks the first original commission for BBC First in Canada since Blue Ant Media launched the channel in partnership with BBC Studios in March 2021. The six-part series, co-produced by Nikki Ray Media Agency and EQ Media Group, in association with Blue Ant Media, Channel 4, Abacus Media Rights, Quiver Entertainment, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The History Channel (NZ), follows Welsh comedian and travel enthusiast Griff Rhys Jones on an epic journey across the commonwealth country as he explores Canadian cultures and traditions.
Blue Ant Media has greenlit two new Canadian documentary specials, The Digital Divide (working title) (Season 1; World Broadcast Premiere) and Strange Creatures (working title) (Season 1; World Broadcast Premiere), for its premium factual channel, BBC Earth. This is the first time Blue Ant Media has commissioned originals for BBC Earth in Canada since the channel launched in partnership with BBC Studios in 2017. The Digital Divide (working title) explores the growing chasm between the have and have-nots of digital, mobile and satellite technology. The timely documentary special looks at how COVID-19 exposed the underlying reality that not everyone can afford essential digital devices and examines the significant implications it has on society when there is not an equal playing ground to access technology. The special will have a digital premiere on the MobileSyrup website, a Blue Ant Media-owned company and Canada’s leading technology news website, before airing on BBC Earth. Strange Creatures (working title), a nature and wildlife documentary, is a one-hour spinoff special to Blue Ant Media’s hit YouTube series, Animalogic. Hosted by Animalogic’s scientific illustrator, Danielle Dufault, the special explores Canada’s unusual and fascinating creatures. Both documentary specials are scheduled to premiere in spring 2022 on BBC Earth during the channel’s nationwide free preview event.
On Smithsonian Channel in Canada, the Blue Ant Media and Channel 5 co-production, World’s Most Scenic River Journeys (Season 2; Canadian Premiere) has been renewed for a second season. Narrated by Golden Globe®, Tony and BAFTA award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), the documentary series takes audiences on a visually stunning trip alongside some of the most beautiful and famous rivers around the world. Also new is History by the Numbers, an energetic, fast-paced 20-part series about the extraordinary and often overlooked numbers that help us decode world history. Each episode delves into the numbers to give audiences unimaginable numerical facts and top stats behind a different subject – from the massive growth of the global fast-food empire to the wealth and bloodshed of the world’s top crime bosses, the herculean numbers behind Mount Everest, the lives of the richest people on earth, and so much more. The series offers a fresh perspective on how the world adds up today. History by the Numbers is scheduled to premiere in winter 2022 on Smithsonian Channel in Canada during the channel’s nationwide free preview event.
Additional original commissions will be announced by Blue Ant Media in the coming months.
For a full list of programming highlights, please see below.
COTTAGE LIFE
Life Below Zero: Canada (Season 2; 8×60’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2022 • World Broadcast Premiere
A Blue Ant Media, Quebecor Content and APTN Co-production • Producer: Saloon Media
Long, dark, frozen winters. Sweltering, bug-infested summers. Canadians who live ‘off the grid’ grapple each day with limited means to find food, water, and shelter. Life Below Zero: Canada captures the rugged day-to-day trials of Canadians who live in the remote Canadian north. Find out how they survive in the most unforgiving environments using various means, from makeshift problem solving to traditional survival skills. Distributed by Blue Ant International in Canada only.
Merchants of the Wild, Season 4 (13×30’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2022 • Broadcast Premiere
A Blue Ant Media and APTN Co-production • Co-Producers: Little Bear Big Wolf Pictures/Buck Productions
A vivid 13-part documentary series mixing culture, survival, reconnection to the land, and the experience of a lifetime. The series follows six Indigenous Adventurers who embark on a journey that takes them to a new territory where their time with Elders and the land will help them reconnect with their own roots and Nations. They will spend 25 days on the land, and in water, paddling three birchbark canoes through a vast territory, known to the L’nu (Mi’kmaq) people as Kespukwitk (lands end). Following an old waterway trade route, used by the welcoming Nation, the Adventurers begin their journey with a few necessary tools and a limited supply of dried meat. From day one they will begin to decolonize and will need to rely on cultural teachings and the land to reach the end of their journey, which is where they will have had the time to reconnect to who they are as Indigenous Peoples. Distributed by Blue Ant International.
Ice Vikings, Season 3 (8×60’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2022 • World Broadcast Premiere
Producer: Farpoint Films
Ice Vikings brings an adventurous look at the wild and dangerous world of commercial ice fishing on Lake Winnipeg. This is where modern-day Vikings set out on ice as thin as a sheet of paper to stake their claim to the bountiful freshwater fish stock on one of Canada’s largest lakes. Once the claims are held, the crews battle against the elements, as temperatures plunge below -50 Celsius, to haul in the lucrative freshwater catch that is worth millions.
T+E
Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life (8×60’; HD)
Scheduled for fall 2021 • Canadian Broadcast Premiere
A Blue Ant Media and discovery+ Co-production • Producer: Cream Productions
Executive produced by award-winning film director, producer, writer and actor Eli Roth, the new original anthology series unveils shocking, modern-day real-life stories of hauntings that have left emotional (and sometimes physical) scars on those unlucky enough to have experienced them. Equal parts horrific and evocative, every hour-long episode will expose viewers to survivors who have been dragged through hell and back and now struggle to rebuild their shattered lives.
The Lost Colony of Roanoke (1×90’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2022 • Canadian Broadcast Premiere
Co-Producers: Saloon Media and BriteSpark Films
A gripping documentary special that follows renowned British archeologist, Professor Mark Horton and local historian Scott Dawson as they unravel a tantalizing 400-year-old mystery as to what happened to ‘Lost Colony of Roanoke’, the first European settlers in the Americas. The series gives audiences exclusive access to a new excavation site and brings together compelling archaeological evidence for the first time to solve America’s oldest mystery with some startlingly modern truths. Distributed by Blue Ant International.
BBC FIRST
Griff’s Great Canadian Adventure (6×60’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2022 • Canadian Broadcast Premiere
A Nikki Ray Media Agency and EQ Media Group co-production in association with Blue Ant Media, Channel 4, Abacus Media Rights, Quiver Entertainment, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The History Channel (NZ)
O-Canada, here comes Griff! Welsh comedian and travel enthusiast Griff Rhys Jones is packing his snowshoes and heading north by seaplane, train, cargo boat, dogsled and monster truck in search of the soul of Canada. In each episode, Griff sets himself a monumental challenge that forms the spine of his journey. Typically, the challenges are quirky and reflect the spirit of the region of Canada he is visiting. Audiences will have a front-row seat to watch Griff as he attempts to perform these highly entertaining challenges as best he can.
BBC EARTH
The Digital Divide (working title) (1×60’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2022 • World Broadcast Premiere
Producer: Blue Ant Digital
The Digital Divide explores the growing chasm between the have and have-nots of digital, mobile and satellite technology. The timely special spotlights the human side of technology and how COVID-19 exposed the underlying reality that not everyone can afford this essential service. The special examines the significant implications technology has on society when there is not an equal playing ground to access digital devices. The special will have a digital premiere on the MobileSyrup website, a Blue Ant Media-owned company and Canada’s leading technology news website, before airing on BBC Earth. Distributed by Blue Ant International.
Strange Creatures (working title) (1×60’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2022 • World Broadcast Premiere
Producer: Blue Ant Digital
Strange Creatures explores Canada’s unusual and fascinating creatures. Hosted by Animalogic’s scientific illustrator, Danielle Dufault, the one-hour nature and wildlife special will retain the main elements that have made the hit Animalogic YouTube series so successful. This special will have a digital premiere on the Animalogic YouTube Channel before airing on BBC Earth in Canada. Distributed by Blue Ant International.
SMITHSONIAN CHANNEL
History by the Numbers (20×60’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2022 • Canadian Broadcast Premiere
A Blue Ant Media and CuriosityStream Co-production • Producer: Saloon Media in association with Jupiter Entertainment
History By The Numbers is an energetic, fast-paced documentary series taking an exploratory global dive into the extraordinary and often overlooked numbers that have created our world’s history. Each episode will delve into the numbers and over the top stats behind a different subject – from the massive growth of the global fast-food empire to the wealth and bloodshed of the world’s top crime bosses, the herculean numbers behind Mount Everest, the lives of the richest people on earth and so much more. Distributed by Blue Ant International.
World’s Most Scenic River Journeys, Season 2 (10×60’; HD)
Scheduled for spring 2022 • Canadian Broadcast Premiere
A Blue Ant Media and Channel 5 Co-production • Producer: Saloon Media/BriteSpark East, part of the Argonon Group
Golden Globe®, Tony and BAFTA award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) returns as narrator to take audiences on an exploration of some of the most beautiful and famous rivers around the world. Each episode explores one river, travelling from source to finish. Some are iconic, others lesser-known, but all the rivers feature spectacular scenery and reveal surprising details about the countries they run through. Audiences meet people who live and work along the riverbank and share inside stories about its history, culture, wildlife and folklore. Distributed by Blue Ant International.