Andy DehnartDan Levy was inspired by a reality TV show to create Schitt’s Creek along with his dad, Eugene Levy, and both are now moving into reality TV: they’ll each star in and executive produce new reality shows for streaming services.
While Dan and Eugene acted alongside each other in the Emmy-winning Pop TV sitcom, playing David and Johnny Rose, their unscripted shows are separate, and don’t involve each other.
Both projects were announced today, within an hour of each other.
Eugene Levy’s reality TV show
Eugene Levy is starring in a new Apple TV+ show called The Reluctant Traveler on which Levy will travel and visit hotels around the world, despite being—you guessed it—a reluctant traveler.
Here’s how Apple describes the show:
The Reluctant Traveler will see Eugene Levy visit some of the world’s most remarkable hotels, as well as explore the people, places and cultures that surround them. Self confessedly not your average travel show host – he’s not usually adventurous or well versed in globe-trotting – he’s agreed the time is right for him to broaden his horizons. Levy will be packing his suitcase with some trepidation but hoping his experiences might lead to a whole new chapter in his life – that’s as long as he doesn’t have to battle his motion sickness, and still gets dinner at 7.
That sounds to me like a combination of an Anthony Bourdain series and Netflix’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals.
It will be produced by the UK production company Twofour. Apple didn’t say anything else about the series, other than the fact that Levy will also executive produce, in addition to being the on-camera subject.
Dan Levy’s reality TV show
Meanwhile, Dan Levy will produce and host a new HBO Max cooking competition called The Big Brunch.
The same production company behind Cheer and Chef’s Table, Boardwalk Pictures, will produce the series, which HBO Max describes vaguely as “a cooking competition series that celebrates the most inspiring undiscovered culinary voices from every corner of the country.”
The Big Brunch is now casting, and the application identifies the tentative filming dates as three to four weeks in March and April of 2022, so it’s likely going to be a while before we see the show.
What’s the actual format? HBO Max says, in an awkwardly written description, that “[c]hefs will be offered the opportunity share their stories and their business dreams, while also competing for a life altering prize. All while finding innovative and personal ways to redefine what it means to dine between 11am and 3pm.”
HBO Max executive Sarah Aubrey said that the show “serves more than mouth-watering culinary delicacies; it’s about heart, a love of cooking and spotlighting talent whose unique skills elevate the beloved brunch menu.” So yeah, that clears up nothing.
I don’t know what any of those words mean, at least in relation to the format of a reality TV competition, but I’m 100 percent in for Dan Levy hosting a competition about brunch.
In a press release, he said,
“Everybody has a friend, a family member, or a co-worker that is extraordinary at what they do, they just need a leg up so that their talents can be appreciated on a larger scale. Thanks to an almost obsessive love of food, I’ve been lucky enough to come across many of those people in the culinary world — friends working out of cafes or food trucks, revolutionizing the menus at local diners — those special humans who create communities around their cooking, hoping to take their skills to the next level. I created this show for them, the local culinary heroes of America who deserve a spotlight. That, and who doesn’t want to watch maple syrup being poured slowly over a golden stack of perfectly cooked, creme brûlée inspired French toast?”