U8TV: The Lofters

U8TV: The Lofters was a Canadian reality television series, which aired on the Life Network and online on its online TV channel U8TV.com, in 2001 and 2002.

Format

The show followed the lives of eight young Canadians who lived together in a Toronto loft for a one-year period, while at the same time producing and hosting their own television programs for Life Network or other cable TV networks, and for the website U8TV.com. The loft, located in Toronto's Entertainment District near the intersection of Peter and Richmond streets, had 21 cameras filming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in all rooms of the house including the bathrooms, although the bathroom camera was only broadcast if Lofters went in there to talk.

The show was not only a fly-on-the-wall-style reality show like MTV's The Real World, but was also a nightly series of talk shows and documentaries that were created and hosted by the cast members. The online shows or TV shows produced by the Lofters included Fuel, So Gay TV, Male Box, Spin the Bottle, Love Shack, Money Shot, U8 on Film and House Party. The shows had regular weekly time slots and were hosted regularly by one or two Lofters, and usually centred on themes of interest to young people.

Digital Television channel

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved a licence for a U8TV Category 2 digital television channel in 2000, but the channel was never launched.[1]

Season One: 2001

The Lofters in Season One were:

Tre Smith was a last minute replacement when original lofter Marc left the show over the phone in the first episode. Cast members Kalen and Valery left the show early, before completing their full year in the loft. Other notable events of Season One were: Arisa meeting a half-sister she never knew, gay issues being addressed by lofter Mathieu (including grilling Allan Rock, the federal health minister, on the issue of blood donation by gay men), an episode in which the lofters view and discuss the events of the September 11 attacks, and a number of angry spats between lofters Jennifer and David.

Season Two: 2002

Season Two had extensive auditions and various combinations of possible Lofters were sent into the house for trial runs to see which candidates had the right chemistry. The auditions were shown early on in Season Two. The Lofters who began Season Two were:

In the second season, the show moved towards more of a Big Brother-style format when a new twist was added to the show. Every ten weeks, the producers would select two Lofters whose hosting skills were sub-par or who didn't share enough of their lives, and nominate them for eviction. Fans of the show could then go to U8TV.com and vote for the Lofter they wanted to evict. The first (and only) occurrence of the twist saw Jason Ruta and Annie Guillo nominated for eviction. Fans voted Ruta off the show, and he was replaced by Stephen MacDonald.

Season One lofter Kalen reappeared on several occasions during Season Two, as he was dating Season Two Lofter Annie.

The show also began exercising a degree of self-censorship in the second year. During the first season, Internet viewers were able to view the residents having sex, showering, etc. During the second year, the show instituted a policy that whenever possible the cameras would be turned off during such private moments.

Cancellation

Mid-way through the second season, however, the show was cancelled. Although the show's ratings on television were strong, the costs to stream live video 24/7 and broadcast over the internet were too high at the time, for the show and online TV channel to survive.

Post-show careers

A few former Lofters have gone on to successful television gigs, most notably Season One's Jennifer Hedger who is now an anchor on TSN's popular SportsCentre (and in this role made an appearance on the sitcom Corner Gas). Also from season one David Keystone became the host of Corus Entertainment's cooking competition series, Cook'd, on YTV. Also from Season One, Mathieu Chantelois has hosted programming for OutTV, while Sandy Medeiros has appeared as a guest judge on MuchMusic's Video On Trial. Season Two's Carolyn Jarvis is now a news anchor for Global's newsmagazine series 16x9, after having worked as an anchor for Global Edmonton, a local television station in Red Deer, and as an anchor with The Weather Network. Season One's Arisa Cox and Season Two's Jason Ruta were co-hosts of E! Canada's E! News Weekend; following that show's cancellation Cox became lead entertainment reporter for CBC News, and is now the host of Big Brother Canada.

Season One's Tre (Trevor) Smith became an animal control officer with the City of Toronto.

U8TV co-creator and executive producer Zev Shalev is the creator and senior executive producer of Entertainment Tonight Canada, and was director of program strategy for E! Canada.

References

  1. ↑ Decision CRTC 2000-488

External links

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