If you’ve ever gotten drunk at a bar, had a tiff with your best friend or a crush on someone who didn’t like you back — in other words, been a 20-something — Erin Brock figures you can relate to “Canada Shore.”
She’s a long-time producer of reality TV shows, including “Canadian Idol,” “Battle of the Blades” and “Big Brother Canada,” and she has a message for those who stereotype all reality TV as fake: this series is “among the realest stuff I’ve produced.”
“At the end of the day, your show lives or dies by (the) cast and how real they are willing to be about their experience. And I think they stand the test of time because it is real,” she said of the stars of “Canada Shore.”
Viewers will get to judge for themselves when the show debuts on Paramount Plus on Thursday.
It’s the newest spinoff of “Jersey Shore,” the hit MTV series that ran between 2009 and 2012, made celebrities of people named Snooki and JWoww and The Situation, and engendered catchphrases like “T-shirt time” and “gym, tan, laundry.”
But instead of eight young Americans from New York and New Jersey living together in Seaside Heights, “Canada Shore” put 10 20-somethings from across the country in a lakefront house in Kelowna, B.C., last July.
“We were looking for … the most authentic, unapologetic, big personalities, people that were not going to be afraid to really be themselves, like, just big, bold, funny,” said showrunner Brock.
What they weren’t looking for were carbon copies of “Jersey Shore” stars like Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Jenni “JWoww” Farley, “Pauly D” DelVecchio or Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino.
“I think what’s kind of incredible about the ‘Shore’ franchise worldwide is that they’re all different,” said Brock.
The format — a group of young adults lives, works and parties together for a number of weeks — has been replicated in 17 spinoffs set in 11 other countries plus a couple of other American states. Two of those, Poland’s “Warsaw Shore” and England’s “Geordie Shore,” lasted more than 20 seasons — the latter just debuted its 26th instalment.
“For us, we wanted our show to feel Canadian,” Brock said.
“I think something that makes Canadian reality television really unique is … the geographic diversity of the country. When you have people from all different places with all different life experiences … learning how to live together is really interesting.”
Still, that doesn’t mean “Jersey Shore” isn’t referenced throughout “Canada Shore” — despite the fact one cast member would have been four years old when it debuted.
There’s even a replica of the famous duck phone that had pride of place in the original series.
The most direct connection is the addition of “Jersey Shore” OG Snooki to the “Canada Shore” cast.
The Chilean American TV personality, who’s now 38 and a mother of three, acts as boss and den mother to the Canadians.
“The cast obviously completely lost their minds because they’re huge Snooki fans,” Brock said. “So it was super fun to have that experience. But I think they also really quickly became close to her and really looked to her for advice, and she helped them sort out some pretty serious stuff in the house.
“She could relate when a house guest is like, ‘I just want to go home, I miss home.’ If you watched the first season of ‘Jersey Shore,’ (Snooki) got on that duck phone and wanted to go home,” Brock added.
“As fun as this seems, it’s also hard, and we wanted to give them someone that understood that in a way that you can only understand it if you’ve lived it.”
There’s something compelling about watching this cast, whose ages range from 20 to 24, learning how to get along inside the house while also partying like there’s no tomorrow in some of Kelowna’s many bars — all of it captured by around 35 fixed-rig, robotically controlled cameras plus six camera operators.
Brock said the series was not overly produced. “You work really hard to find an incredible cast … you put everything in place and then you let them live.
“I think viewers relate to something that, as outrageous as it can be, feels real.”
‘Canada Shore’: ‘Drink, fight, forgive’
We asked the five members of the cast currently living in the GTA four questions:
1. What made you want to appear on “Canada Shore”?
2. How do you think “Canada Shore” compares to “Jersey Shore”?
3. What should “Canada Shore”‘s catchphrase be?
4. What’s your favourite memory from meeting Snooki?
Here are their answers (two of them skipped a couple) plus a quote from each that I pulled from the first few episodes.
Christopher, Toronto
1. “I wanted to show the world how crazy I party and that people who party hard don’t deserve the bad rep they get.”
2. “Just like ‘Jersey Shore,’ through all the chaos and fighting, we always somehow came back together like a family.”
3. “Drink, fight, forgive.”
4. “When she took us out partying, we drank lots of wine and things got messy!”
Quote: “My makeup is falling off of my face, the sun is in my eyes and I’m non-vibing.”
Gizelle, Mississauga via Jamaica
1. “I love to experience life to the fullest, whether that’s drinking rum in the streets of Saint Lucia or dancing on a truck at Caribana. This was also an opportunity for Caribbean representation on Canadian TV. On top of that, I have the most supportive mother ever, who basically forced me to give it a try. Thank you, Mom.”
2. “There is no comparison to ‘Jersey Shore’! The 2000s MTV culture was a staple in a lot of our childhoods. We grew up on (the catchphrase) ‘Cabs Are Here’ and, on our show, we got picked up in black trucks. All we are here to do is show that Canada knows how to have fun!”
3. “Drink, tan, argue with Chris.”
4. “Snooki is legit four-foot tall, OMG! She took her heels off and they were like six-inch platforms, and she smells like cookies.”
Quote: “Do your little (country) dances. I’m gonna twerk tonight. I’m shaking ass.”
Ethan, Newmarket
2. “The drama is honestly damn near the same — the ladies on this show know how to throw a fit and the boys know how to kick back and watch, ha ha!”
3. “SALFP (stop arguing let’s f—king party).”
4. “Definitely when she told me I was the Vinny of the house. I was in awe.”
Quote: “No good memory comes from sitting at a bowl of celery sticks.”
Lila, Toronto
1. “I wanted to be part of something iconic that celebrates Canadian party culture and real friendships. The world doesn’t know how wild Canada gets, and if someone has to show them how it’s done, it might as well be me. It felt like the perfect mix of chaos, fun and unforgettable memories.”
2. “No one can ever compare to the OGs — ‘Jersey Shore’ is iconic. We’re just doing our own new thing and bringing ‘Canada Shore’ energy in our own way.”
4. “Meeting Snooki was surreal — she’s exactly as iconic and hilarious in real life as she is on TV. It honestly felt like meeting reality TV royalty.”
Quote: “It’s Canada Day. I want to watch fireworks and drink tequila and do sparklers.”
Bauer, Toronto via Saskatchewan
1. “I’ve always been told I should be on a reality show, so when this opportunity presented itself, I just couldn’t say no.”
2. “Nothing will beat ‘Jersey Shore,’ but I can guarantee you that viewers will not be disappointed with what ‘Canada Shore’ offers!”
3. “Screaming, yelling, overreacting.”
4. “My favourite memory of Snooki was her escaping the girls and getting a breath of fresh air by hanging with the guys.”
Quote: “I’m not an instigator like Mike. I’m not The Situation, I swear.”
“Canada Shore” debuts with two episodes Jan. 22 on Paramount Plus, with new episodes streaming on Thursdays.
