Coming off challenging pandemic years that shifted operations and opened new doors, Toronto-based Insight Productions is expanding its portfolio, including development on a scripted slate that’s set to hit the field.

The nearly 45-year-old Boat Rocker-owned prodco has continued to prove its mettle in the unscripted space with projects such as the recently launched original format Canada’s Ultimate Challenge (pictured above; also produced by The Gurin Company) for CBC and Cook at All Costs for Netflix — alongside ratings juggernauts The Amazing Race for CTV and Global’s Big Brother Canada. All the while, producers have been preparing a vast array of scripted projects to present to prospective buyers.

“We’re on the mound pitching lots of new ideas,” John Brunton, Insight Productions chairperson, CEO and executive producer, tells Playback Daily. “That’s what we’ve been doing partly during this whole COVID thing, getting all those ready to go and take to market and finance.”

Those scripted projects include a drama miniseries on environmental organization Greenpeace, which was also profiled in the 2015 documentary How To Change The World, produced by Insight Productions, the U.K.’s Met Film Production and Daniel Film. The miniseries is being developed in partnership with powerhouse prodco Participant Media, Insight’s partner in L.A. “We’re now packaging that show, putting it in front of actors and directors and are really fired up about the script,” says Brunton (pictured right).

Insight is also making headway on Hardwood, a dramatic series being developed in partnership with CBC and Canadian NBA star Steve Nash’s Meathawk Productions. First announced in 2015, the young-adult basketball series recently delivered “what I think is a terrific script,” says Brunton.

Other endeavours include development on a miniseries about Canadian artist Emily Carr with CBC. Brunton says Sherry White, co-creator of CBC’s Pretty Hard Cases, is attached as showrunner on the Carr project, which has also just delivered the second draft of episode one.

Lindsay Cox (pictured left), SVP, executive producer and showrunner, Insight Productions, says Kim Senklip Harvey is also a writer on the Carr miniseries. With support from CBC, the project is continuing development as a four- or six-part limited series.

New and familiar territory

The scripted slate harkens back to Insight’s days of more than a decade ago, producing series such as sitcom Hatching, Matching and Dispatching (CBC) and teen dramas Falcon Beach (Global, ABC Family) and Ready or Not (Global).

But Insight is also venturing into a new world under a partnership with Dark Slope announced in May 2022 to develop unscripted hyperreality series. Brunton says Insight and Dark Slope have shot a pilot and are developing other projects together, including a VR game show and “all sorts of stuff with both adults and kids.”

Other Insight plans include Dark Side of the 2000s, which it’s producing as a follow-up to its 2021 doc series Dark Side of the 90s for Vice TV in the U.S.

Brunton says Insight is also in discussions with a broadcaster about adapting the Eurovision Song Contest for Canada under a partnership with former producers of the hit live televised event.

Then there’s planning for the upcoming second year of the Legacy Awards broadcast, which Insight is producing with Shamier Anderson and Stephan James‘ The Black Academy for CBC and CBC Gem.

“I’m the reverse of specialized,” Brunton says with a laugh, recounting his long and varied career. “I’ll try anything.”

Pandemic pivot

Such projects are a reflection of how things strategically shifted at Insight over the past three years, says Cox, noting the company spent the pandemic looking to other worlds in which it could excel while eventually resuming production on its hit reality series and live events. “We’ve really looked at how, as a company, we can grow and provide opportunities for all the people that we saw excel in the past few years,” she says.

Mark Lysakowski (pictured right), SVP and executive producer at Insight, says the pandemic-related production halt on The Amazing Race Canada allowed him to develop new ideas, such as the Dark Side and Dark Slope projects. Last summer he went into production on Canada’s Ultimate Challenge, which debuted Feb. 16 and sees participants competing in physical challenges across Canada.

Lysakowski calls Canada’s Ultimate Challenge a “monster” production with a cast bigger than any other Insight show, and Brunton says it’s “one of a number of original formats” Insight is working on right now.

“It was a travelling circus of 100 and some-odd people,” says Lysakowski, noting that unlike existing formats like Big Brother and The Amazing Race, they had to come up with a whole new concept that would “stand out from all the other formats in the world.”

Erin Brock, SVP and executive producer at Insight, says the pandemic helped Insight “figure out really creative ways and new problem-solving solutions for making shows that are going to benefit us moving forward.”

“In Canada, the challenge always is: how can you make something as good as the American stuff that we all watch and consume in real time, with way less money, on 10% of the budget?’ I really think the pandemic was a gift for that, because we had to figure out how to do it,” says Brock, whose projects over the pandemic included Prime Video’s LOL: Last One Laughing Canada, Big Brother Canada and HGTV Canada’s Sarah’s Mountain Escape.

Other team members helping with the new ventures include Kari Hollend, who joined Insight’s development team last year as the company also promoted Jessica Brunton to VP of production, Anthony Matkovic as director of branded content and partnerships, and Paul Thomas as VP of finance.

Key to longevity

The team touts brand integration as one of the most important elements to sustaining high-level productions that stand the test of time (both Big Brother Canada and Top Chef Canada debuted 10th seasons last year, while The Amazing Race Canada was renewed for a ninth).

Chevrolet Canada has been a branded partner on The Amazing Race Canada for multiple years, and Big Brother Canada announced earlier this week it has a record nine sponsors for season 11, premiering March 8. Those shows are among the 23 Canadian Screen Award nominations Insight landed last week (24 if you count Big Brother Canada‘s inclusion in the Audience Choice Award category).

“I think it’s a bit of a specialty we’ve notched out for ourselves in the industry in Canada,” says Brock, showrunner on Big Brother Canada. “We have really good relationships with the brand partnership teams at the networks and it’s very collaborative.”

Other recent productions from the company include Wall of Bakers, which debuted in March 2022 and was produced by Insight Productions in association with Corus Studios for Food Network Canada.

“Our two years of COVID were rough. We had one show cancelled after another,” says Brunton. “So to be back in the swing of things — we just had our best year ever in ’22, and we’re really looking great for ’23 and ’24 — things are fun instead of producing TV shows from the kitchen table.”

Images courtesy of Insight Productions