Like many celebrities, ET Canada is getting a little work done for its birthday.

On a recent set visit, Playback caught up with the show’s exec producers Sholeh Fabbri and Jodie Davis to discuss the show’s 10th anniversary makeover, its expanded digital strategy and new broadcast specials.

First and foremost, digital will be a primary focus, the producers say, with much of the refresh reflecting that idea.

“We’re looking as season 10 as a ‘thank you’ to viewers, and trying to get them involved in the show,” Davis explains.

The show’s new set features a new gold-and-white logo that is in the shape of an app icon, and hosts Cheryl Hickey and Rick Campanelli will have iPads with them on-set to use for demonstration and viewer interaction. As an example, the producers are expanding on strategies used during ET Canada Live broadcasts, in which users could see their tweets live on the show using specific ET Canada-related hashtags.

The content of ET Canada lends itself particularly well to social media, Fabbri said.

The ET Canada Twitter account currently has about 140,000 Twitter followers, and a recent online campaign launched by the show where viewers could vote for the best songs of the 2000s garnered over 2.1 million votes.

“The stories that we cover every day seems to be a natural extension into [viewers’] everyday life,” Fabbri said.

In addition to refreshing for the 10th season, part of the strategy behind the new set design for the 10th season was to better align the Canadian show to its American counterpart.

“ET and ET Canada are really part of the entertainment powerhouse hour here in Canada – shows which tell complementary stories about the world of entertainment and celebrity and we wanted to reconnect visually moving into our 10th season,” Fabbri said. The new set features a grey-and-gold colour scheme, which is similar to the Entertainment Tonight set. ET Canada now also features a desk at the centre of the set where the hosts will converge.

In addition to revamping sets and its digital presence, ET Canada has also expanded its brand beyond the half-hour television show. An ET Canada New Year Eve show broadcast this winter brought in over 3.3 million viewers at midnight, and the show also did a behind-the-scenes special for Shaw Media’s original History series Vikings, as well as a similar special for Global TV’s Rookie Blue.

ET Canada also lends it hosts and content to other properties across Shaw Media, such as weekly segments highlighting upcoming theatrical releases that can be aired on other programs. Following this year’s Emmy Awards ceremony, host Erin Ceubla also did call-in segments with various radio stations to share her experiences from the red carpet.

ET Canada will host another New Year Eve’s special this year in Niagara Falls, and other specials are in the works, although Fabbri declined to provide more details.

The 10th season of ET Canada will bow on Global on Sept. 2.