Hey world, The Beaverton’s coming at ya
| Toronto Star 16 Jul 2019 at 12:30 |
Entertainment
“We’re finally free from our geoblock cage!” Rivas said in an interview.
“It’s the first time a Canadian late-night perspective is going to reach multiple international audiences,” added Hunter. “We’ll put our opinions out there and our quips, and our absolutely capable jokes. We’ve got big ideas.”
“Emma feels privileged; I feel sorry and embarrassed like a true Canadian, but we’re gonna do it anyways,” quipped Rivas.
Just as Canadians are hard-pressed to define what it means to be Canadian, Rivas and Hunter couldn’t nail down a definition of The Beaverton’s Canadian perspective.
“There’s a sense there is an individual perspective people are allowed to have that is sort of based on our version of freedom,” said Rivas. “It feels like it’s similar to an American view but without the haze of worrying about American exceptionalism,” he said, i.e. “the idea that they’re born perfect and are the best.”
Not only are Canadians not perfect, but the anchors hope to counter the world’s “idealized version of what Canada is.”
“Oh, it’s the nice guys. They’ve got the hunky dude who’s a perfect left, progressive liberal,” said Rivas, referring to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“It’s a more nuanced version of Canada. We’ve got troubles of our own.”
A large part of The Beaverton’s satire is drawn from Canadian news, but it’s not like they’ve never tackled international topics before or garnered international attention.
Hunter cites an item about the 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump as one that resonated internationally.
“We had this taped piece that was pretty cheeky about the death of the United States of America,” she said.
Another was a story about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian hacking.
While The Beaverton will continue to “relish and lean into being Canadian,” it will expand on its international ideas, Hunter said.
“I think our goal is just to always go for the hypocrisy,” she said.
“Not align with bullies and not even speak to the audience from any sort of moral superiority. We want to take the international landscape and poke the holes where they should be poked.”
And while the Beaverton website has long had an international presence, now entire episodes of the TV show will be available simultaneously to non-Canadian audiences on CTV’s YouTube channel.
“We just want to get the TV show and website synced up in people’s minds,” Rivas said.
For homegrown audiences, the series returns for its third season July 23 at 10 p.m. and it’s now airing on CTV rather than the Comedy Network.
The half-hour show tapes Monday nights for its Tuesday night airings and Hunter said new drafts of scripts are delivered right up until the cameras roll.
“It’s an intense, high-energy environment in the studio,” Hunter said. “Miguel and I just love every minute of it.”
One topic viewers can definitely expect to be a staple of the new season is the Canadian federal election. “Nobody’s safe,” said Hunter, citing the federal party leaders. “All are on the table to be skewered.”
The Beaverton airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on CTV, at CTV.ca and on the CTV app, as well as CTV’s YouTube channel . It’s also available on demand, on Crave and at TheBeaverton.com the day after broadcast. Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Crave.
