TVO ending The Agenda with Steve Paikin after 19th season

 TVO journalist and host Steve Paikin has announced that The Agenda, the long-running current affairs show he co-hosts on Ontario’s publicly funded English-language educational television network, will end in June.

In a blog post, Paikin wrote that TVO’s flagship program’s current 19th season would be the last - and, with his 65th birthday impending, he would soon no longer be a full-time employee at the network.

“As much as I have loved hosting The Agenda for the past 19 years (and hosting four other programs for TVO over the past 32 years in total), anchoring a daily program is a seven-day-a-week job,” he wrote.

“I realized that if I ever wanted to tackle some of the other things on life’s to-do list, I just couldn’t do them and host a daily show at the same time. Something’s gotta give.”

In a press release, TVO said that Paikin – who moderated the English-language federal leaders debates last week – would continue to be involved with the broadcaster in a number of ways, including as co-host of the weekly #onpoli podcast and writer of a weekly online column. (Globe an Mail)

Ted Kotcheff has died at 94

 Ted Kotcheff, the prolific Toronto-born filmmaker behind classics from both sides of the Canada-Hollywood divide — from a beloved adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz to First Blood, which introduced moviegoers to Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo — died Thursday at the age of 94, his family confirmed to The Globe and Mail.

Kotcheff was born in Toronto’s Cabbagetown neighbourhood, the son of two impoverished Bulgarian immigrants. In his 2017 memoir, Director’s Cut: My Life in Film, Kotcheff recalled a formative moment growing up when he witnessed his next-door neighbours get evicted because they could not afford the monthly $2 rent. “I remember thinking, at four, ‘What sort of world would do that? It shaped me, made me compassionate about other people’s stories.” (The Globe and Mail)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/article-canadian-filmmaker-ted-kotcheff-director-of-first-blood-and-weekend-at/