Behind the Grey Cup
Seeing how a Grey Cup telecast is put together isn’t going to change your appreciation of the game itself. And yet … as the engaging Discovery Canada docu-series Nerve Centre shows in The 100th Annual Grey Cup, the first of back-to-back episodes in Wednesday’s season opener, it can be a real eye-opener to peer behind the curtain and see TV wizardry at work. When a bank of lights shut down at this year’s Super Bowl, viewers at home were spared the sight of white-knuckle panic in the TV control room.
As Nerve Centre shows, though, the pressure is intense, even when things seemingly are going well. TSN televised the Grey Cup live and Nerve Centre reveals how electricians, camera operators, location managers and production supervisors were at work at Rogers Centre days ahead of time, taking measurements, moving equipment into position and trying to figure out the best way to convey the Grey Cup spectacle so that it would look as compelling on a cellphone screen as on a wall-to-wall plasma display.
Pressure is a constant. The wiring is complicated: the electricity seems reliable, but it’s not an absolute and human error is always a factor. (Discovery Channel — 6 & 10 p.m.) The once-promising sitcom How to Live with Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life) reaches the series finale, in which Polly (Sarah Chalke) finally gets her daughter into a program for gifted kids. (ABC, Citytv — 10:30 p.m.) Summer reality-TV bickerbash Big Brother is back with two new twists: three house guests will be eliminated each week, and viewers can vote for a “Big Brother MVP.” (CBS, Global — 9 p.m.) Perception, the TNT cable drama starring Eric McCormack, returns for a second season with Dr. Pierce (McCormack) having to decide whether an accused murderer is mentally fit for trial. (Bravo — 7 p.m.)