‘All Eyes Are On Us,’ Says Bell Media Exec Justin Stockman as He Looks Forward to More Success at #BellMediaUpfont 2026

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede   The 2026 #BellMediaUpfront was at the centre of the Canadian entertainment universe on Thursday, with a big presentation and celebration in downtown Toronto, and many announcements about exciting upcoming programming. The event drew a large swath of on-screen talent, including: James Austin Johnson (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE), who did his signature Donald Trump impression for the crowd; Hudson Williams (HEATED RIVALRY/YAGA); Carrie-Ann Moss (YAGA); Scott Speedman (R.J. DECKER); Mark-Paul Gosselaar (BULGES); Nicole Polizzi (SNOOKI: PARANORMAL ROOKIE); the entire main cast of the highly anticipated HBO series STUART FAILS TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE, Kevin Sussman, John Ross Bowie, Lauren Lapkus, and Brian Posehn; and many more. A fun photo gallery that encompasses the entire day can be found here. STUART FAILS TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE is a unique spinoff of THE BIG BANG THEORY that premieres July 23 on Crave. The fantastical plot follows comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Sussman) as he accidentally triggers a multiverse Armageddon after breaking a device originally built by Sheldon and Leonard. So, the cast of STUART FAILS TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE was asked a crucial question on Thursday: how exactly does Canada fare in this new multiverse Armageddon? “Look, it’s called STUART FAILS TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE,” said Sussman, stressing the word “fails.” “Nobody does well,” added Bowie, shaking his head. “Canada is part of the universe, I don’t know if you know that,” Posehn pointed out. “But I’m a Rush fan, so I’m all for saving Canada.” With an eye toard entertaining Canada, as well as the rest of the world, Justin Stockman, VP, Global Content for Bell Media, identified two big programming trends for the coming year. “First, with originals, we’ve continued to ramp up, and we’re really looking at series that will play even bigger globally,” Stockman said. “We want to take the momentum we’ve had and keep building it, so there are a lot of originals. We always knew we could do it, but I think we’re looking at it as, this is an opportunity where all eyes are on us, especially following the success of HEATED RIVALRY, and everyone wants to see what we do next. So, we’re doing a whole bunch of stuff next, to keep this trend going.” Stockman continued, “then as far as the acquisitions go, we did pick up some new series, but we’ve also picked up some of the strongest legacy titles that were with other platforms that we’ve managed to pull over to ourselves. We think that they’re going to do well on CTV, but more importantly, we think that they’ve maybe been underexposed because they haven’t had a great streaming platform, and now with Crave, they’ll have an even bigger story.” Stockman went on to take a quick look at some of the key titles: BIG BROTHER and BIG BROTHER CANADA Stockman: “So, the U.S. version of BIG BROTHER fits into that perfectly, because we think it will do great on CTV, but we also think it’s going to have amazing viewership on Crave when it comes to us in the summer of 2027. And as part of that, we decided to bring back BIG BROTHER CANADA, with Andrea Bain from THE SOCIAL as the host, premiering in the spring of 2027. BIG BROTHER CANADA always did well when it was on our competitor, so now it’ll be with us, and we think that having a Crave play on it will help make it even bigger. It’s also a great partnership with our French colleagues, because they already do BIG BROTHER in Québec, so we’ll be shooting it in the same house in Québec – at a different time, obviously – but there’s some great efficiency there to be able to bring back the series that was such a ratings hit, but it was a very costly series. Now we’ve figured out how to do it in a really smart way. There’s just a great efficiency there to bring it back and sort of set it up for long-term success.” SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Stockman: “SNL is the No. 1 25-to-54 series on television, and it’s not even in primetime on the East Coast. It’s another one of those titles where it has done really well at our competitor for years, but we feel like it has been underexposed in Canada for the true potential it has. Previously, if you didn’t watch it live, it was hard to find. And a lot of people don’t want to stay up that late. So, Crave is going to be a key part of the success of SNL once it moves over to us this fall. It’ll be streaming live on Crave when it’s on CTV, as well as On Demand on Crave the next day, the full unedited episode, so people waking up on Sunday will be able to watch it and find it easily. I think we’ll still see really strong 25-to-54 live viewing numbers, but where we’re going to really benefit from it is the next-day viewership, and that following week, on Crave. You do hear that as a complaint in the market, ‘I don’t know where to find it the next day.’ Crave can now step into that role.” DOC Stockman: “I also want to mention DOC, because it continues the trend. Like SNL and BIG BROTHER, DOC is our third pickup of a show that has been a perennial hit. We think it’ll do even better on CTV, not only because of our lineup, but again, it has not really been able to benefit from where I think it’s a really strong streaming title. It has a procedural nature, but then there’s also a really strong story arc that’s continuing with that show, where I think it’s going to do really well on Crave. And we’ve also picked up the back seasons of DOC, so people who didn’t watch it before can catch up, and then Season 3 will be on CTV this fall.” THE LITTLEST HOBO Stockman: “This is a big one. We announced our development and production agreement with Point Grey, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s company, last year. And the first project has come together. They are going to do a new version of THE LITTLEST HOBO. They’ve given us their treatment of how they’re going to handle it, and it’s not a kids show, in that, it’s not a remake of the original show in the same spirit. It’s the same format, where the dog doesn’t talk, and goes from town to town and solves crimes and helps people. But it’s not specifically for a kids audience, or a family audience. The intended audience is adults.” MEATBALLS Stockman: “We’ve been chasing this one for many years. It’s classic Canadian IP, one of the top Canadian movies ever made, so it has been hard to sort of chase down the rights. We’ve now been able to pull it together, and it’s basically the same plot as the movie, but we’ve done a bit of a gender swap to make it feel more contemporary. The people who are camp counselors probably should have given that up a few years ago, but they really enjoy it, so it’s just the hijinks they get up to, and it’s a bit of a sex comedy. And then Robbie G.K., who is signed on, and is coming right off of HEATED RIVALRY, he’s going to be the male love interest of the female lead.” THE HIDDEN KEYS Stockman: “We’ve been working on this for quite a while, and we’re glad we’ve been able to get it ready to go. It’s based on a novel where it’s about a master thief who’s working on behalf of a wealthy family to steal things, but also he’s trying to set his life right, but keeps getting pulled back in. It has a very global feel to it, because of the wealthy family, and some of the things they need to get done. It’s a pretty interesting, exciting novel that is good IP from which to build a series.” I’M NOT HERE TO HURT YOU Stockman: “This one is something we’ve set up with Sony Pictures Television, where they don’t have a U.S. buyer yet, but we were able to get this show off the ground, and now we’ll be selling it together around the world. With David Shore, being a Canadian, it was great to set up here as a Canadian series. Freddie Highmore is not Canadian, but he lives here a lot of the time, so he’s an honorary Canadian. The plot of the series is that through an unfortunate circumstance, Freddie’s character kills someone in a bike accident, and it sets off a real downward spiral in his life. He then ends up being a bank robber as a result of that, but he’s trying to do so without causing any damage, or any hurt to anyone. He’s just trying to get the money, while making sure no one gets hurt in the process.” BALLS DEEP Stockman: “This was pitched to us as the real-life HEATED RIVALRY, where essentially it’s a reality show set in Florida, and there are going to be Canadian ties through some of the characters, and some travel. Essentially it’s in beach volleyball and tennis in the amateur leagues, and folks that might be having relationships with one another secretly. These are real people, but it’s not a competition series, it’s a ‘follow series’ about a group of friends who play these sports, and are having secret relationships with one another.” CATS IN THE PLATEAU Stockman: “This is all from Jared Keeso’s mind, where lots of crazy ideas come from, and they’re in production right now in Montréal. Essentially, he liked the backdrop of The Plateau in Montréal, and has set a bumbling crime series with that backdrop, and so there’s a cast of characters who are want-to-be criminals working in the area of The Plateau.” I KILL THE BEAR Stockman: “We’re just setting an air date. We’ve got the show in. It is as wild and weird as described.” BULGES Stockman: “It’s shooting right now. So if Hooters is for a mainly male clientele, BULGES is for a mainly female clientele. The waiters are men, and they wear shorts. The rest is obvious. It’s basically Hooters for women, but it’s a workplace comedy. It’s actually got some heart to it, but also a lot of ridiculous comedy, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar has agreed to be the lead, so we’re bringing him back. It’s a half-hour comedy set at BULGES in Niagara Falls, and they have a feud with the neighboring restaurant, Dick’s Wings. So it’s about who will win in their fight of the restaurants. We were looking for a name to attach to the show that we could bring in. The writing is hilarious, the concept is hilarious. So we wanted someone who might pique the interest of, ‘what is this show, and why is he on it?’ Mark-Paul Gosselaar fits the bill perfectly, and he’s very committed and super into it.” YAGA Stockman: “Hudson Williams is playing a far different character than he was in HEATED RIVALRY. It’s a half-hour drama, definitely genre-bending. It’s based on a pretty well-known play that won a ton of awards. The playwright, Kat Sandler, is also the showrunner. It’s basically a crime investigative series, but the backdrop is this creepy supernatural world of the folklore of the Baba Yaga, which is Eastern European mythology of a witch who lives in the woods. So it’s all meshed together into a pretty compelling series that has lots of twists, and is really mood-setting, and creepy, and exciting.” SNOOKI: PARANORMAL ROOKIE Stockman: “Every show that Snooki has been on, we’ve had, and they’ve all done well for us. So somebody came in and pitched us, and said, what do you think if Snooki wants to be a paranormal investigator, she’s training to do this because she has interest in ghosts and the supernatural, and a guy from Ontario is willing to train her and take her around to haunted places in Ontario. And that’s what it is. The show is all about her reactions when they do find paranormal experiences, or what she deems are paranormal experiences. Her reactions to it are what you’d expect from Snooki.” SALTY Stockman: “We don’t have any casting for this yet, but it’s a female buddy comedy about two mermaids who leave the ocean looking for love. The folklore in the story is that if they don’t find love before they turn 40, they will turn into fish. So it’ll definitely be a little sex-forward. It’s them trying to figure out how they find love in this complicated world, and a lot of the humour will be them not understanding how things work. You know, it’s Splash with more sex. And yes, they get legs, they grow legs when they’re on land.” NEW DOCUMENTARIES Stockman: “One other thing I definitely want to mention regarding originals is, we just have a ton of continuing hockey-related documentaries, and then we’ve just really ramped up the true-crime titles as well. We’re just finding true crime is really working for Crave, as is anything hockey-related. Both of those categories really continue to deliver for us.” (More details can be found here.) THE ROOKIE NORTH Stockman: “This one is really strong. We’ve seen the first episode, the pilot’s available. It takes the best elements of what makes THE ROOKIE work – basically the format of someone later in life deciding to try something new – but it’s in a fresh environment, set in the U.S. Northwest. It sets up a new cast of characters, but it has that same sort of ensemble feel. THE ROOKIE, by the way, just can do no wrong, every season. It continues to be one of the top shows, both on linear and also on streaming. And it feels like this time they’ve figured out that secret sauce for a spinoff. They’ve put it in a new location with a new character that’s different enough that it feels fresh, but gives you everything you expect from THE ROOKIE. I’m very bullish that this one is going to be a hit.” GREY’S ANATOMY spinoff Stockman: “What we know is, it’s a GREY’S ANATOMY spinoff set in Texas, and we said, ‘we’ll take it.’ PRIVATE PRACTICE went for several years, and STATION 19 did as well, so there’s a great track record here. We are very excited to see how this comes together, but we’re all in, based on the title alone: ‘GREY’S ANATOMY Spinoff.’ ” AMERICAN HOSTAGE Stockman: “This is set up to be an anthology series if it continues, where it would be a different hostage storyline for the next season. So, in this first season, it’s set in Indianapolis, and it’s about a pretty famous hostage taking at a bank that then was broadcast live on the radio. Giovanni Ribisi plays the guy who takes the hostage, and John Hamm plays a radio DJ who’s then managing this live on the air. Long before O.J. Simpson’s car chase, it’s one of the first times where a crime unfolded live on the air. And some of the elements of the case were that the character Giovanni Ribisi is playing, he felt like he had been screwed over by the bank, and there’s a bit of the little guy versus the system. A lot of the people listening to this as it unfolded were on the hostage-taker’s side, because of the economic times in the 1970s. So it’s really gripping and exciting, and there’s a cast of characters around these two leads that really flesh out the story. It was shot in Winnipeg last winter.” UP TO NO GOOD Stockman: “We’ve seen most of the first episode of this. It’s based on a series of short stories about a character whose name is Maud, played by Glenn Close, and essentially she is, I guess, a serial killer. She kills multiple people, but she’s doing it sort of to get even, or people that just make her mad for a random reason, and you’re often on her side because they’re sort of jerks. Not worthy of being murdered, of course, so it’s a little tongue-in-cheek. Really, the underlying story that the author is telling is that as women age, they can become invisible, and so no one ever suspects that the person who’s guilty is the little old lady who’s always at all these crimes. Then there’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse thing, where one cop gets wise that she seems to always be around when these crimes are happening, but no one else wants to believe that this sweet old lady could be the murderer.” SUNSET P.I. Stockman: “This is for mid-season, from the makers of BROOKLYN NINE-NINE, and it feels pretty similar to BROOKLYN NINE-NINE. It’s set in L.A., and it’s a private investigator, with a wacky set of characters, set around Jake Johnson trying to solve crimes, but they’re not always great at their jobs. It’s fun. I think it’s going to do quite well.” THE TRAITORS franchise Stockman: “The only other thing I want to say is, THE TRAITORS universe keeps expanding, where we’re back with another season of THE TRAITORS CANADA, the UK TRAITORS, and UK CELEBRITY TRAITORS. And alongside the US TRAITORS, which is actually celebrity TRAITORS, but it’s just called THE TRAITORS, we’ve now picked up THE TRAITORS Civilian Version. Since they already called the celebrity version in the U.S. simply THE TRAITORS, they called this one THE TRAITORS Civilian Version. So, we picked that up as well. There doesn’t seem to be anyone getting tired of THE TRAITORS. We’re continuing to be bought in on the whole franchise, and we’re growing along with it.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv