With Bryan Adams and Michael Bublé on Board, JANN: ALONE FOR THE HOLIDAYS Hits All The Right Notes

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede If there’s one thing a good holiday special needs, it’s big guest stars. And keeping with that tradition, JANN: ALONE FOR THE HOLIDAYS has two of them. Joining Jann Arden and the cast of the sitcom JANN for the new special – which debuts Friday, Dec. 9 at 9 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app – are a couple of old pals of hers: Bryan Adams, and Michael Bublé. They’re probably all on some Canadian music legends group text chain. “Bryan was right in the middle of a tour, and Michael was right in the middle of a tour,” said Arden when asked about the process of getting Adams and Bublé involved. “So it was a lot of people moving a lot of things around. You know, these guys, I’ve known them for a long, long time, and they were both really excited to do it. It’s great to have that kind of star power.” JANN: ALONE FOR THE HOLIDAYS exists in the universe of JANN, in which Arden plays a fictionalized version of herself. When the Jann character unexpectedly finds herself free for the holidays, she hopes to surprise her family just in time for an old-fashioned Christmas. But she’s shocked to discover that everyone has made their own separate plans without her, so she’s left to reminisce – cue fun flashback sequences – with her personal assistant Trey, played by Tenaj Williams. Bublé has lent his considerable comedic talents to JANN previously – he won “Best Guest Performance, Comedy” at the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards for his role as an obsessed admirer of Jann’s in Season 3 – but this is a first foray for Adams. “Bryan’s actually going to be playing a brand new Christmas song called Let’s Get Christmas Going, which is one of those songs that you just can’t get out of your head,” Arden said. “The scene with Bryan, he’s singing the song, and I’m just being a jackass. But he really enjoyed himself. I talked to him afterwards and he said, ‘that was a really great time, Jann.’ I think Bryan is perceived as a pretty serious guy. He doesn’t even do a lot of press any more these days. So to have him come and spend an afternoon with us – like, literally fly in, and fly out four hours later – was absolutely the kindest gesture. And Michael, I mean, he’s such a good actor. He’s so funny. And Bryan was really funny in this as well. I can’t wait for people to see it.” Arden said that even back when JANN debuted in 2019, the general idea existed to perhaps do a one-off Christmas special at some point. “I think we were sort of fashioning ourselves after those limited series in the U.K., where they would do a couple of seasons and then you’d have a Christmas special – I mean, I’m obviously referring to huge franchises,” Arden recalled. “But we just thought, how fun would it be? So we’re very grateful for the opportunity. And with the chance to do a holiday special, people would think it might be harder for storytelling to have that extra half-hour (as opposed to the regular half-hour sitcom format), but we really loved being able to take our time, and spend time with all the characters.” In addition to Arden, Williams, Adams, and Bublé, JANN: ALONE FOR THE HOLIDAYS also stars Deborah Grover as Jann’s mom Nora, Elena Juatco as Jann’s manager Cale, Jason Blicker as Jann’s former manager Todd, Sharon Taylor as Jann’s girlfriend Cynthia, Alexa Rose Steele as Jann’s eldest niece Charley, and Dave Lawrence as Santa Claus. Arden even gets to sing a couple of Christmas songs. They’re performed in the context of comedic situations, of course, but she sings them nonetheless. Singing is how she got famous in the first place, after all. “I think the thing about Christmas specials in general is, you would be remiss to not include music, and especially music that everybody knows,” Arden said. “This special is really reminiscing about things that are important to you at Christmas time, and what makes you happy, and music is absolutely a part of that. It’s all supposed to be in the spirit of joy. And remember, at the heart of the JANN show, even with all the sardonic, sarcastic humour, my character is someone who is constantly trying to get it right.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv