However, not all his customers have had a good dining experience at Fuiyoh! It’s Uncle Roger.
In a Reel uploaded to Instagram on Oct 24, Lukian Wang, the Hong Kong YouTuber behind CookingBoBo, went as far as to call it her “worst dining experience” in Malaysia.
Lukian had made a beeline to the restaurant immediately after touching down at the airport.
“This was the first place I hit up when I arrived in Malaysia. After all, I am a fan and I like fried rice,” she shared.
The restaurant was still closed when Lukian arrived, and she said she waited for around 40 minutes before being seated.
While she scrolled through the online menu, Lukian realised she didn’t have many options to begin with.
“I did not expect more than half the menu to be already sold out,” Lukian explained.
After placing her order, she waited a good 21 minutes before her first item came — a cup of hot lemon tea.
While she praised the cup for being “cute”, she felt that the drink was falsely advertised and did not match the image in the menu.
“I laughed it off at this point but I didn’t realise it was going to get much worse,” she foreshadowed.
Some 50 minutes after being seated, Lukian lamented that her plate of fried rice had still not been served.
After making eye contact with the man who had been queueing in front of her, she noted that he too had not received his food yet.
Finally, after an hour‘s wait, her fried rice arrived.
While she admitted that it “did look good”, Lukian wasn’t satisfied.
When a woman at the next table asked for her opinion about the food, she bluntly told her: “[It’s] probably only the best fried rice right now because I’m so hungry.”
She also told her viewers that the queue outside the restaurant was because of the slow service and not because the place was popular.
“Needless to say, I won’t be coming back,” she said.
AsiaOne has reached out to Lukian for more details.
In the comments, Uncle Roger apologised to Lukian and promised to “do better next time”.
Other netizens also shared their thoughts about Lukian’s experience, with many praising her for her honesty.
One said they were surprised that Lukian had the patience to wait that long as they would have left after 20 minutes.
On the other hand, there were some who shared some reasons why the food took so long to arrive.
One netizen suggested that the restaurant may have faced challenges in sourcing ingredients, while another speculated it could be due to a lack of manpower.
INDIAN RIVER – It was a Homecoming night of fun for the Inland Lakes football team, which remained undefeated by hammering Rogers City in a 54-16 victory at Shanley Field on Friday.
Fueled by a potent offense and relentless defense, the Bulldogs (6-0) took control early and never looked back.
Here’s some takeaways from Friday’s triumph for Inland Lakes.
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Big plays help Bulldogs pull away quickly
The Bulldogs unleashed on the Hurons (1-5) by scoring on three of their first four plays and building a 22-0 lead just over four minutes into the contest.
The first explosive play came when Inland Lakes faked out the Hurons with a trick play, as senior quarterback Aidan Fenstermaker got the ball back from a teammate and launched a 61-yard touchdown pass to senior Dylan Zinke.
On the next possession, junior running back Andre Bradford broke loose for an 82-yard TD scamper and a made 2-point conversion that pushed the Bulldogs’ advantage to 16-0.
One possession later, the Bulldogs capped off a drive when Fenstermaker tossed a 11-yard TD pass to Cam Kettle.
Bradford rounded out a dominant Inland Lakes offensive quarter by scoring from 10 yards out, which helped the Bulldogs build a 30-0 lead.
“We made a couple mistakes against (Ishpeming) last week, so we wanted to just clean those up and show what how we play when we’re playing perfect,” Inland Lakes senior offensive lineman Jack Wilson said. “It was surreal playing my last Homecoming game. When you’re a little kid, you always think of what your last senior Homecoming game is going to be like. Coming into this week, we understood our assignments. We emphasized running every play perfect and doing all the keys that we needed to do.”
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Not letting up
The big plays kept coming in the second quarter for the Bulldogs, who received a 21-yard TD run from senior Mitch Crawford, a 45-yard TD dash from Bradford, and a 53-yard score from Fenstermaker.
“Our offensive line did a really good job of getting push and making sure our running backs couldn’t miss the holes,” Inland Lakes coach Travis Meyer said.
While the I-L offense couldn’t be stopped, the defense throttled Rogers City all night, as sophomore defensive end Alyx Willis was highly productive, along with Wyatt Hanel and Mason Green, who intercepted passes.
“It’s fun football. They fly around, they hit, they don’t necessarily push the limits too often, so it’s aggressive but pretty safe,” Meyer said of his defense. “We feel good about that.”
A night made for a King
Fenstermaker once again delivered a superstar display, and the senior signal-caller was honored at halftime when he was named Homecoming king, joining senior Lexi Kovtun, who was named queen.
It made for a perfect night as Fenstermaker and the Bulldogs were impressive in front of a huge home crowd.
“It meant a lot, I didn’t expect it,” Fenstermaker said. “I was rooting for all the other court reps, and when they said my name, I was like, ‘OK, that just happened.’ It was great.”
Inland Lakes next plays at Pellston (1-4) for a 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, Ski Valley 8-Player Conference clash.
Corus Entertainment’s co-leader says the broadcaster is confident its two new lifestyle brands can “compete and win” against Food Network and HGTV after losing both networks’ Canadian content rights to Rogers Communications Inc.
Flavour Network and Home Network will launch Dec. 30, offering a blend of original Canadian programming and international content acquired through new and expanded licensing agreements. They will replace the current channel positions of Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada next year and air original shows that were meant for those networks.
“From adversity comes creativity and can sometimes come greatness,” Troy Reeb, Corus co-CEO said in an interview Wednesday, adding that the broadcaster conceived of the new networks “under a deadline” after Rogers scooped the rights to two of its key brands earlier this year.
Reeb said Flavour and Home will lean harder into Corus’s “distinct Canadian identity” and aim to attract a younger and more diverse audience as part of the broadcaster’s programming strategy.
“We know we’re going to have to compete in the space, and we think we’ve come up with something that’s leaning on our long-term expertise and experience in this space and is going to compete and win.”
Reeb said Home and Flavour will carry more Canadian shows than HGTV and Food Network did last season. Corus says 110 hours of Canadian originals have been confirmed across both channels for 2025-26.
Among that CanCon are new seasons of “Renovation Resort,” Scott McGillivray’s “Scott’s Vacation House Rules” and Pamela Anderson’s “Pamela’s Garden of Eden.” Flavour Network will also carry Anderson’s new series “Cooking with Love,” as well as returning shows “Top Chef Canada” and “Carnival Eats.”
Home Network will air fresh titles including “Building Baeumler” with Bryan and Sarah Baeumler and “The Big Burger Battle” with Andrew Phung.
Reeb pointed to new shows “Rentovation” with Natalie Chong and “Beer Budget Reno” with Kristen Coutts — both featuring millennial hosts — as content appealing to a younger demographic.
Bryan Baeumler sees the rebrand as a “massive opportunity” now that the channels are no longer limited by the programming drawn from U.S. versions of HGTV and Food Network.
“The padlocks have really fallen off the prison cell here and it’s given us the opportunity to relaunch this with a Canadian focus,” he said.
“It’s given us a little bit of latitude to include some really new, exciting and expanded lifestyle content, bring it to the network and keep it here. So, for us, this really doesn’t seem like a loss.”
Among new acquisitions are “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars” and “Chasing Flavor with Carla Hall” on Flavour, as well as Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis’ “Honest Renovations” and Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on Home.
Corus announced in June that it will lose the rights to several key Warner Bros. Discovery brands, including HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Magnolia Network and OWN at the end of the year. Those brands move to Rogers in January.
Reeb says Corus is “not concerned” about Rogers’ plans for HGTV and Food Network.
“People can buy the rights to a name, but the secret sauce really comes in how those programs get put together, what gets commissioned, how they flow into each other. And we’ve had 26 years of doing this at Corus.”
Media analyst James Nadler says the launch of Home and Flavour is a “good move” for Corus given the success they’ve had with Canadian shows on Food Network and HGTV, but he questions the broadcaster’s ability to produce more homegrown content amid its mounting debt and recent layoffs.
In Corus’ third-quarter earnings call in July, the company said that by the end of August, it expected it will have reduced its full-time workforce by 25 per cent — or nearly 800 jobs — compared with September 2022 due to slumping revenues.
“They’re going to be going with two new services that will require much more Canadian material, and they’ll have fewer development executives to shepherd the material through,” said Nadler, an associate professor of media production at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Nadler also pointed to a recent Globe and Mail report that Quebecor Inc. made an offer to buy Corus months ago, but the cash-strapped company has yet to respond.
“It’s a question of whether Corus can withstand the costs of launching two new services while advertising revenues are down and while other companies, notably Quebecor, are circling to buy them.”
Reeb declined to comment on the report about Quebecor’s overtures to Corus.
Corus says more programming details and new series will be announced later this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
Corus Entertainment’s co-leader says the broadcaster is confident its two new lifestyle brands can “compete and win” against Food Network and HGTV after losing both networks’ Canadian content rights to Rogers Communications Inc.
Flavour Network and Home Network will launch Dec. 30, offering a blend of original Canadian programming and international content acquired through new and expanded licensing agreements. They will replace the current channel positions of Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada next year and air original shows that were meant for those networks.
“From adversity comes creativity and can sometimes come greatness,” Troy Reeb, Corus co-CEO said in an interview Wednesday, adding that the broadcaster conceived of the new networks “under a deadline” after Rogers scooped the rights to two of its key brands earlier this year.
Reeb said Flavour and Home will lean harder into Corus’s “distinct Canadian identity” and aim to attract a younger and more diverse audience as part of the broadcaster’s programming strategy.
“We know we’re going to have to compete in the space, and we think we’ve come up with something that’s leaning on our long-term expertise and experience in this space and is going to compete and win.”
Reeb said Home and Flavour will carry more Canadian shows than HGTV and Food Network did last season. Corus says 110 hours of Canadian originals have been confirmed across both channels for 2025-26.
Among that CanCon are new seasons of “Renovation Resort,” Scott McGillivray’s “Scott’s Vacation House Rules” and Pamela Anderson’s “Pamela’s Garden of Eden.” Flavour Network will also carry Anderson’s new series “Cooking with Love,” as well as returning shows “Top Chef Canada” and “Carnival Eats.”
Home Network will air fresh titles including “Building Baeumler” with Bryan and Sarah Baeumler and “The Big Burger Battle” with Andrew Phung.
Reeb pointed to new shows “Rentovation” with Natalie Chong and “Beer Budget Reno” with Kristen Coutts — both featuring millennial hosts — as content appealing to a younger demographic.
Bryan Baeumler sees the rebrand as a “massive opportunity” now that the channels are no longer limited by the programming drawn from U.S. versions of HGTV and Food Network.
“The padlocks have really fallen off the prison cell here and it’s given us the opportunity to relaunch this with a Canadian focus,” he said.
“It’s given us a little bit of latitude to include some really new, exciting and expanded lifestyle content, bring it to the network and keep it here. So, for us, this really doesn’t seem like a loss.”
Among new acquisitions are “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars” and “Chasing Flavor with Carla Hall” on Flavour, as well as Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis’ “Honest Renovations” and Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on Home.
Corus announced in June that it will lose the rights to several key Warner Bros. Discovery brands, including HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Magnolia Network and OWN at the end of the year. Those brands move to Rogers in January.
Reeb says Corus is “not concerned” about Rogers’ plans for HGTV and Food Network.
“People can buy the rights to a name, but the secret sauce really comes in how those programs get put together, what gets commissioned, how they flow into each other. And we’ve had 26 years of doing this at Corus.”
Media analyst James Nadler says the launch of Home and Flavour is a “good move” for Corus given the success they’ve had with Canadian shows on Food Network and HGTV, but he questions the broadcaster’s ability to produce more homegrown content amid its mounting debt and recent layoffs.
In Corus’ third-quarter earnings call in July, the company said that by the end of August, it expected it will have reduced its full-time workforce by 25 per cent — or nearly 800 jobs — compared with September 2022 due to slumping revenues.
“They’re going to be going with two new services that will require much more Canadian material, and they’ll have fewer development executives to shepherd the material through,” said Nadler, an associate professor of media production at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Nadler also pointed to a recent Globe and Mail report that Quebecor Inc. made an offer to buy Corus months ago, but the cash-strapped company has yet to respond.
“It’s a question of whether Corus can withstand the costs of launching two new services while advertising revenues are down and while other companies, notably Quebecor, are circling to buy them.”
Reeb declined to comment on the report about Quebecor’s overtures to Corus.
Corus says more programming details and new series will be announced later this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment headquarters in Toronto on Sept. 18. Rogers Communications Inc. acquired Bell’s 37.5-per-cent stake in MLSE for $4.7-billion.Yader Guzman/The Globe and Mail
For the 12 years that BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. have co-owned 75 per cent of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, rumours have persisted about behind-the-scenes tensions between the corporate behemoths. So, when they simultaneously issued separate press releases on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. announcing that Rogers was buying out Bell’s 37.5-per-cent stake in the sports giant, it was hard to ignore the differences in how they portrayed the path forward for TV viewers of MLSE’s two most popular teams.
Bell proudly declared that its media division, “has secured access to content rights for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors on TSN for the next 20 years through a long-term agreement with Rogers.” That made it sound as if the deal contained a subcontract spelling out the terms by which TSN would continue to broadcast the Leafs and Raptors games it currently carries, after it no longer owns those teams.
Rogers’s language made things sound a lot less certain. Its announcement said the deal would merely, “provide Bell with the opportunity to renew its existing MLSE broadcast and sponsorship rights long-term at fair market value. This includes access to content rights for 50% of Toronto Maple Leafs regional games and 50% of Toronto Raptors games for which MLSE controls the rights.”
The deal is unfolding against a backdrop of increasing chaos in North American sports broadcasting. While leagues are striking richer deals than ever with national carriers – in July, the NBA announced it had signed an agreement with ESPN, NBC and Amazon that would bring in US$76-billion over 11 years, starting with the 2025-26 season – a number of the regional broadcasters in the U.S., the ones that actually carry the majority of games, are in trouble as subscribers cut the cord. Some teams have begun offering their games on over-the-air broadcasters, while others are trying to build their own sports channels.
Meanwhile, streamers have been moving into Canadian sports broadcasting over the past few years, making things a lot more confusing – and, frankly, expensive – for fans.
So, with that in mind: A helpful Q&A on what the changes at MLSE might mean for TV viewers.
Will Rogers’s consolidation of its MLSE ownership make it easier to watch Leafs or Raptors games?
You’re kidding, right?
Okay, why not?
It’s complicated, so let’s begin with the source of what may be the greatest irritation for sports fans. TV rights for live sports are usually sold off in two separate packages: regional and national. Leagues handle national-rights sales, while the individual teams themselves sell the remaining games to regional or local broadcasters.
In Canada, the most famous example of a national-rights deal is the $5.2-billion purchase of 12 years’ worth of NHL games by Rogers Communications, beginning with the 2014-15 season. For the first 10 seasons of that deal, the company broadcast national games on its Sportsnet and CityTV channels, as well as (on Saturday nights) CBC. This year, Amazon’s Prime TV service is taking over the Monday night national broadcasts that used to be on Sportsnet. But most games are still carried by regional broadcasters, and the deal probably won’t change that landscape, at least not yet.
Wait, what’s the difference between regional and national broadcasts?
Regional games are available only to viewers in the teams’ home markets, or those who buy out-of-market packages such as NHL Centre Ice or Sportsnet+.
Rogers is the English-language regional broadcaster for the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames, so its Sportsnet operation carries 55 to 60 of each of those teams’ games each season; the rest of the teams’ games are carried nationally on either Sportsnet or CBC, or Prime.
Bell Media is the English-language regional broadcaster for the Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg Jets, so its TSN operation carries 50 to 60 of each of those teams’ games, with the rest broadcast nationally by Sportsnet or CBC, or Prime.
How are Leafs regional broadcasts handled?
They’re carved up between Bell and Rogers. So, this season, 40 of the Leafs’ 82 regular-season games will be split between the regional operations of TSN and Sportsnet – which is to say TSN4 and Sportsnet Ontario. TSN will broadcast 26 games, while Sportsnet Ontario will carry 14.
The rest will air nationally: Sportsnet will carry 36, and Prime will carry six.
So Leafs fans will have to subscribe to three services this year if they want to watch all of the team’s games?
Yes. Well, four, actually – but viewers don’t have to pay to watch CBC.
During a brief chat with Ron MacLean that ran on Sportsnet’s website Wednesday afternoon, Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said that the company would continue to share rights to the Leafs and Raptors “over the next couple of years. And then after that, they’ll have the opportunity to continue to buy those rights at market rates. And so, from a viewer’s perspective, they’ll continue to watch the games the way they do today for a very long time.”
Need we point out that an “opportunity to continue to buy those rights” isn’t the same as saying the sale is assured?
There’s another “but” coming, isn’t there?
Indeed! Rogers’s national NHL rights deal concludes at the end of the 2025-26 season. At the time it was struck, in December, 2013, it seemed like it might be a model for future media deals: Rogers would be the gatekeeper for all national broadcasts, on any platforms that existed at the time of the signing as well as any that might be developed during its 12-year span.
That made things simple for the NHL, because it only had to deal with one partner in Canada. But it meant the league lost some pricing power. And it also meant that, as the rights payments escalated over the course of the deal (starting at about $300-million a year and rising to about $500-million toward the end), Rogers might be under pressure to find more revenue – which is to say, to put its more popular games on Sportsnet, where fans would have to subscribe to watch, instead of CBC or CityTV. That approach might be good for Rogers, but it almost certainly reduces the reach of the NHL. While the league has a monopoly on professional hockey in North America, the NHL remains a distant last place among the big four pro sports leagues, so reducing its potential reach is exactly the wrong way to go.
So, what happens when Rogers’s deal for national NHL rights expires in two years?
That’s the $6-billion (plus?) question. Nobody knows – and while today’s deal makes Rogers an even more powerful voice in the NHL boardroom, the league will almost certainly want to boost both its rights fees and its potential Canadian TV viewership. Which likely means more streamers in the mix, and also almost certainly an old-fashioned broadcaster with an over-the-air channel that boasts a fat national footprint.
Okay, how about the Raptors? Is it as confusing to watch them?
No. Not yet. TSN and Sportsnet currently divide the team’s 82 regular-season games, with each broadcaster carrying 41 games. All of those are national, because the Raptors are the only NBA team in Canada, so its “region” is the entire country. Again, assuming Bell steps up to pay what Rogers considers “fair market value” for the rights, TSN will continue to be able to buy and broadcast the same number of games.
(If Rogers and Bell are looking to boost their revenue, maybe they should sell pay-per-view access to the negotiating sessions where they argue over what “fair market value” means.)
What about the Argos and TFC, which MLSE also owns?
In Canada, rights for both CFL and MLS are sold to broadcasters by the leagues: Regional rights don’t exist, because the individual teams aren’t popular enough. (No offence, Rider Nation!) Bell has been the exclusive broadcaster of the CFL since 2008, putting all of the games – including the Grey Cup – on TSN, much to the consternation of traditionalists and my Grey Cup-loving father (a traditionalist without a TSN subscription). This season, Bell also began airing select games on its CTV broadcast channel, leading to a bump in viewership.
This MLS season, TSN is carrying 14 games each of CF Montreal, TFC and the Vancouver Whitecaps. All MLS games are also available through a subscription to MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.
And, while we’re talking about sports, how about the Jays?
The Toronto Blue Jays operate within a division of Rogers Communications. They sell their games directly to, er, a division of Rogers Communications, which broadcasts them nationally.
A handful of games are kept back each season by Major League Baseball and sold in a package to Apple TV+ for its Friday Night Baseball programs.
Corus Entertainment’s co-leader says the broadcaster is confident its two new lifestyle brands can “compete and win” against Food Network and HGTV after losing both networks’ Canadian content rights to Rogers Communications Inc.
Flavour Network and Home Network will launch Dec. 30, offering a blend of original Canadian programming and international content acquired through new and expanded licensing agreements. They will replace the current channel positions of Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada next year and air original shows that were meant for those networks.
“From adversity comes creativity and can sometimes come greatness,” Troy Reeb, Corus co-CEO said in an interview Wednesday, adding that the broadcaster conceived of the new networks “under a deadline” after Rogers scooped the rights to two of its key brands earlier this year.
Reeb said Flavour and Home will lean harder into Corus’s “distinct Canadian identity” and aim to attract a younger and more diverse audience as part of the broadcaster’s programming strategy.
“We know we’re going to have to compete in the space, and we think we’ve come up with something that’s leaning on our long-term expertise and experience in this space and is going to compete and win.”
Reeb said Home and Flavour will carry more Canadian shows than HGTV and Food Network did last season. Corus says 110 hours of Canadian originals have been confirmed across both channels for 2025-26.
Among that CanCon are new seasons of “Renovation Resort,” Scott McGillivray’s “Scott’s Vacation House Rules” and Pamela Anderson’s “Pamela’s Garden of Eden.” Flavour Network will also carry Anderson’s new series “Cooking with Love,” as well as returning shows “Top Chef Canada” and “Carnival Eats.”
Home Network will air fresh titles including “Building Baeumler” with Bryan and Sarah Baeumler and “The Big Burger Battle” with Andrew Phung.
Reeb pointed to new shows “Rentovation” with Natalie Chong and “Beer Budget Reno” with Kristen Coutts — both featuring millennial hosts — as content appealing to a younger demographic.
Bryan Baeumler sees the rebrand as a “massive opportunity” now that the channels are no longer limited by the programming drawn from U.S. versions of HGTV and Food Network.
“The padlocks have really fallen off the prison cell here and it’s given us the opportunity to relaunch this with a Canadian focus,” he said.
“It’s given us a little bit of latitude to include some really new, exciting and expanded lifestyle content, bring it to the network and keep it here. So, for us, this really doesn’t seem like a loss.”
Among new acquisitions are “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars” and “Chasing Flavor with Carla Hall” on Flavour, as well as Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis’ “Honest Renovations” and Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on Home.
Corus announced in June that it will lose the rights to several key Warner Bros. Discovery brands, including HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Magnolia Network and OWN at the end of the year. Those brands move to Rogers in January.
Reeb says Corus is “not concerned” about Rogers’ plans for HGTV and Food Network.
“People can buy the rights to a name, but the secret sauce really comes in how those programs get put together, what gets commissioned, how they flow into each other. And we’ve had 26 years of doing this at Corus.”
Media analyst James Nadler says the launch of Home and Flavour is a “good move” for Corus given the success they’ve had with Canadian shows on Food Network and HGTV, but he questions the broadcaster’s ability to produce more homegrown content amid its mounting debt and recent layoffs.
In Corus’ third-quarter earnings call in July, the company said that by the end of August, it expected it will have reduced its full-time workforce by 25 per cent — or nearly 800 jobs — compared with September 2022 due to slumping revenues.
“They’re going to be going with two new services that will require much more Canadian material, and they’ll have fewer development executives to shepherd the material through,” said Nadler, an associate professor of media production at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Nadler also pointed to a recent Globe and Mail report that Quebecor Inc. made an offer to buy Corus months ago, but the cash-strapped company has yet to respond.
“It’s a question of whether Corus can withstand the costs of launching two new services while advertising revenues are down and while other companies, notably Quebecor, are circling to buy them.”
Reeb declined to comment on the report about Quebecor’s overtures to Corus.
Corus says more programming details and new series will be announced later this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
Corus Entertainment’s co-leader says the broadcaster is confident its two new lifestyle brands can “compete and win” against Food Network and HGTV after losing both networks’ Canadian content rights to Rogers Communications Inc.
Flavour Network and Home Network will launch Dec. 30, offering a blend of original Canadian programming and international content acquired through new and expanded licensing agreements. They will replace the current channel positions of Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada next year and air original shows that were meant for those networks.
“From adversity comes creativity and can sometimes come greatness,” Troy Reeb, Corus co-CEO said in an interview Wednesday, adding that the broadcaster conceived of the new networks “under a deadline” after Rogers scooped the rights to two of its key brands earlier this year.
Reeb said Flavour and Home will lean harder into Corus’s “distinct Canadian identity” and aim to attract a younger and more diverse audience as part of the broadcaster’s programming strategy.
“We know we’re going to have to compete in the space, and we think we’ve come up with something that’s leaning on our long-term expertise and experience in this space and is going to compete and win.”
Reeb said Home and Flavour will carry more Canadian shows than HGTV and Food Network did last season. Corus says 110 hours of Canadian originals have been confirmed across both channels for 2025-26.
Among that CanCon are new seasons of “Renovation Resort,” Scott McGillivray’s “Scott’s Vacation House Rules” and Pamela Anderson’s “Pamela’s Garden of Eden.” Flavour Network will also carry Anderson’s new series “Cooking with Love,” as well as returning shows “Top Chef Canada” and “Carnival Eats.”
Home Network will air fresh titles including “Building Baeumler” with Bryan and Sarah Baeumler and “The Big Burger Battle” with Andrew Phung.
Reeb pointed to new shows “Rentovation” with Natalie Chong and “Beer Budget Reno” with Kristen Coutts — both featuring millennial hosts — as content appealing to a younger demographic.
Bryan Baeumler sees the rebrand as a “massive opportunity” now that the channels are no longer limited by the programming drawn from U.S. versions of HGTV and Food Network.
“The padlocks have really fallen off the prison cell here and it’s given us the opportunity to relaunch this with a Canadian focus,” he said.
“It’s given us a little bit of latitude to include some really new, exciting and expanded lifestyle content, bring it to the network and keep it here. So, for us, this really doesn’t seem like a loss.”
Among new acquisitions are “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars” and “Chasing Flavor with Carla Hall” on Flavour, as well as Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis’ “Honest Renovations” and Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on Home.
Corus announced in June that it will lose the rights to several key Warner Bros. Discovery brands, including HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Magnolia Network and OWN at the end of the year. Those brands move to Rogers in January.
Reeb says Corus is “not concerned” about Rogers’ plans for HGTV and Food Network.
“People can buy the rights to a name, but the secret sauce really comes in how those programs get put together, what gets commissioned, how they flow into each other. And we’ve had 26 years of doing this at Corus.”
Media analyst James Nadler says the launch of Home and Flavour is a “good move” for Corus given the success they’ve had with Canadian shows on Food Network and HGTV, but he questions the broadcaster’s ability to produce more homegrown content amid its mounting debt and recent layoffs.
In Corus’ third-quarter earnings call in July, the company said that by the end of August, it expected it will have reduced its full-time workforce by 25 per cent — or nearly 800 jobs — compared with September 2022 due to slumping revenues.
“They’re going to be going with two new services that will require much more Canadian material, and they’ll have fewer development executives to shepherd the material through,” said Nadler, an associate professor of media production at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Nadler also pointed to a recent Globe and Mail report that Quebecor Inc. made an offer to buy Corus months ago, but the cash-strapped company has yet to respond.
“It’s a question of whether Corus can withstand the costs of launching two new services while advertising revenues are down and while other companies, notably Quebecor, are circling to buy them.”
Reeb declined to comment on the report about Quebecor’s overtures to Corus.
Corus says more programming details and new series will be announced later this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
