ETalk

"eTalk" (formerly "eTalk Daily") is a Canadian entertainment news show hosted by Ben Mulroney and Tanya Kim. It airs weekdays on CTV and on Star!.

Overview

, a dose of gossip with resident gossip guru "Lainey". Other features include "eSightings", "Movie Alert" and "Playlist", which even got its own spin-off summer series short hosted by resident music expert and "eTalk" co-host Tanya Kim.

"eTalk"'s slogan is "Your Number One Source for Everything Entertainment" - sometimes modified to tie in with upcoming events (especially if airing on CTV), e.g. "Your Number One Source for Everything Oscar". Timeslot rival "ET Canada" has similarly claimed to be the "Most Watched Entertainment News Program in Canada" - both claims are technically valid; "eTalk" has slightly more total viewers but "ET Canada" often leads in specific key demographics.

History

The series began as "Entertainment Now" (or "eNow"), hosted by Carla Collins, later co-anchoring with Dan Duran, and began airing weekly on BBS (later absorbed into CTV) in 1995. Much as now, in its original form "eNow" used a toned-down version of the standard entertainment magazine format. Circa 2000, "eNow" relaunched as "eTalk", a weekly entertainment-oriented talk show hosted by Mulroney with a variety of rotating guest panelists. It was produced by the CTV-owned talktv (now MTV) and taped on the set of "The Chatroom", on which Mulroney was a co-host.

Following the cancellation of "The Chatroom", "eTalk", along with co-host Thea Andrews, returned to its original format. Thea Andrews left the show in 2003 and would later emerge as a reporter for "Entertainment Tonight" in 2007. "eTalk" would become a daily series on the CTV daytime schedule in fall 2002 (hence the brief name change to "eTalk Daily"), switching to primetime airings (coinciding with the launch of "Canadian Idol") on June 9, 2003. Famed entertainment journalist David Giammarco, a veteran in Hollywood circles, was asked to join the show in early 2003 as its Senior Entertainment Reporter and host, bringing to eTalk numerous A-List celebrity interviews and exclusives, and further helped to propel the series with his unique interviewing style and humor. In the fall of 2007, David Giammarco was offered a role in the political comedy "Swing Vote" opposite Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, and Dennis Hopper.

A simulcast of eTalk was launched on Star! in October 2007 after CTVglobemedia acquired control of CHUM Limited and cancelled Star!'s former entertainment newscast Star! Daily.

Personalities

* Ben Mulroney - host
* Tanya Kim - host
* Zain Meghji - Entertainment Reporter
* Elaine "Lainey" Lui - Reporter, laineygossip.com
* Suzie Wall - West Coast and fashion correspondent
* Sophie Gregoire Trudeau - Montreal and French language correspondent
* Anna Cyzon - Entertainment Reporter
* Jully Black - Celebrity Correspondent
* Jesse Palmer - New York Correspondent

External links

* [http://www.ctv.ca/entertainment eTalk website]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493199/ IMDb profile]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1250389/bio]