Citytv is getting into the bridal business with GTA-based prodco Brain Power Studio for their Friday night lineup.

The Wedding Planners, produced by Brain Power in association with Citytv, is a scripted 8 x 60-minute series about three siblings who inherit the family business of wedding planning when their mother passes away.

The series boasts an all-Canadian cast, starring Kimberly Sue-Murray (Shadowhunters), Michael Seater (Life with Derek) and Madeline Leon (Ponysitters Club), and is set to premiere on Friday, March 27 at 8 p.m. ET.

Brain Power founder and executive producer Beth Stevenson told Playback Daily that Nataline Rodrigues, director of original programming at Citytv, approached them in early 2019 about producing content for their successful Fall in Love Fridays block, consisting of romance-themed made-for-TV movies. The prodco was primed to go with The Wedding Planners, which had already been in development. Myles Milne is a producer on the series, with Stevenson and Brain Power’s Nancy Yeaman serving as executive producers.

The series has “the best of both worlds,” according to Stevenson, taking the feel-good emotion of a romance MOW with a new wedding each week, but with the added factor of a core family to follow along throughout. Rodrigues was sold and the series went into production in October 2019.

It was a perfect match between the two, with Citytv interested in commissioning a 10/10 Canadian-produced show and Brain Power aiming to expand from their kids content origins and MOW production to create more prime time television series.

Brain Power has already made moves to expand their content production, promoting Stan Hum (EVP, business development and distribution) and Yeaman (EVP, kids and original content) to executive positions. Moving forward they plan to “play to their strengths,” by focusing on family-friendly programming and utilizing the natural assets available to them with locations in Newmarket and Barrie, ON, which have been key for the production of Christmas MOWs, a business that Stevenson says isn’t slowing down.

Yet while demand for Christmas films is high, with Stevenson noting that their Christmas films continue to perform well into January and February, the prodco believes that the same audience enthusiasm can translate into wedding-themed content, which is why they’ve branched into The Wedding Planners.

“There’s all this beautiful emotion that is connected to weddings. It’s built-in already for the audience,” says Stevenson, “I feel like wedding is the new Christmas.”

Image courtesy of Rogers Media