Samantha Bee Hosts 2023 Canadian Screen Awards Special – The Hollywood Reporter

Samantha Bee will host an hour-long Canadian Screen Awards special. The country’s national film and television awards will not be broadcast live or streamed this year as was the case before the pandemic.

Instead, the former host of Full frontal with Samantha Bee will host a pre-taped hour-long special, The Canadian Screen Awards with Samantha Bee. The recap show will feature celebrity interviews and awards show highlights during the CSA awards ceremonies, being held privately and in person for the first time in four years.

Canadians appearing during the TV special include Ryan Reynolds, Catherine O’Hara and Simu Liu, who will receive honors during this year’s CSAs. Last year, the national awards ceremony handed out grand prizes during an hour-long virtual awards ceremony on CBC and CBC Gem that contained no television commercials and where winners accepted trophies largely from their homes.

For the past two years, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television has been experimenting with online formats because of the pandemic, which has curtailed the traditional glitz and glamor of in-person awards ceremonies, which are set to return this year for industry attendees only.

Born and raised in Toronto, Bee is hosting a pre-taped CSAs special after TBS canceled their late-night show Full frontal with Samantha Bee and shortly after her live touring show your favorite woman starts on April 7th.

“I’m thrilled to host this very glamorous event and look forward to subtly directing my resume to all of the best and brightest in Canadian television and film,” Bee said in a statement Tuesday.

Canadian producers and broadcasters have traditionally used the glamorous glitz of the CSAs, broadcast live on the final night of the high-profile awards ceremony, as a marketing tool for their domestic films and television series.

But low ratings for the CSAs, which took place before the pandemic, prompted another overhaul of the Academy’s Canadian awards show, prompting Katie Lafferty and Roma Ahi of Makers to pull the TV special, which aired April 16 on the CBC network and will air CBS Gem, the streaming service.

The lack of a live broadcast or stream for Canada’s premier film and television awards ceremony also follows the Academy’s appointment of Tammy Frick as its new CEO in October 2022. The awards ceremony will take place during Canadian Screen Week, April 11-14 in Toronto.

The nominees for the 2023 CSAs will be announced on February 22nd.

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