Etan Vlessing / Playback Online
Rogers Media has given second season orders to its Package Deal sitcom and Meet the Family reality series.
Los Angeles-based Andrew Orenstein will return to showrun the Vancouver-based comedy, with Corner Gas‘ Rob Sheridan also writing/producing for Thunderbird Films.
Orenstein and Sheridan earlier worked together on the 18 to Life sitcom for Galafilm and Sound Venture.
Harland Williams will return to co-star as Sheldon in the sitcom about three overly close brothers and the woman who comes between them, while also participating in the writers room.
Julia Voth, Randal Edwards and Jay Malone also star in Package Deal.
Nataline Rodrigues, director of original programming at Rogers Media, said Package Deal earned a second season on the strength of a strong cast, and sustained an audience, despite disruptive scheduling changes.
“That was another sign that the audience was responding and wanted to see more,” Rodrigues told Playback.
Rogers Media is also giving a second season order of 13 episodes to Meet the Family, a reality where someone meets their partner’s family, while being filmed by 30 hidden cameras.
The twist is the “family” are in fact actors looking to make the first meeting a seemingly impossible endurance test that the couple must survive to win a luxury holiday.
The first season of Meet the Family, showrun by The New Tom Green Show‘s Derek Harvie and based on the British series Meet the Parents, had a limited eight episode run.
The series, executive produced by Jamie Brown of Frantic Films, was also written by Ron Sparks and Mark Doyle.