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Torrens trying late night for CBC

By Carsten Knox
June 26, 2008

HALIFAX — The CBC, in conjunction with Len MacKeigan’s Mill Reef Productions, is looking at a new live-to-air variety show from the Maritimes following a one-hour pilot for Live! at 25:00 that aired throughout the region in the wee hours on June 28. The late-night show aired from the Seahorse Tavern in Halifax at 1 a.m. and featured local musicians, comedians and entertainers, hosted by Jonathan Torrens (Trailer Park Boys, Jonovision).

The title refers to the 24-hour clock of the broadcast day, with 25:00 being 1 a.m. The show will also be streamed at cbc.ca for later viewing online.

‘It’s designed to be an entertainment experience that involves comedy, crowd interaction, some music, some interviewing,’ says CBC producer Geoff D’Eon (This Hour Has 22 Minutes, East Coast Sessions). ‘It’s designed as a platform for the myriad talents that surround us in this city.

‘It’s sort of back to the future,’ adds D’Eon. ‘In many ways, the reputation of CBC Halifax was built on live variety shows going back to Don Messer and continuing with Singalong Jubilee.’

Independent producer MacKeigan, who brought his show idea to the CBC and found it meshed with a similar concept they were working on, likes the thought of bringing back the good old days of variety programming. ‘I thought in this age of YouTube it would be good. The variety is essential,’ he says.

D’Eon says that putting together live television is challenging but it’s also huge fun to do.

‘We at CBC Halifax wanted to do a weekly series as a platform for music and entertainers because we take seriously our mandate to showcase indigenous talent. Opportunities to do that are not as frequent as we’d like. We also thought it would be most fun to do it live, more honored in the breach than the observance,’ he says.

Much of the success of the show, and whether it gets picked up as a series, will depend on the online hits it gets during and after the broadcast. ‘We will know how many people watch online and we wanted to make the content as accessible as possible,’ says D’Eon. ‘More than ever, CBC is now a content company. Pretty much everything we do now we think of as a 360-degree platform.’

If Live! does go to series, they will certainly be looking for substantial sponsorship as well.

‘I’d like to see it come out as a series,’ says MacKeigan. ‘I’d like to keep it the same hour. You’re not competing with a lot of shows, and it keeps it fresh.’