Zev Shalev is an Israeli-South African television producer, who has worked predominantly in Canada and the United States. [1] He is most noted as the creator of the Canadian reality television series U8TV: The Lofters . [2]
Born in Israel, he moved with his family to South Africa in childhood, and began his career as a journalist and producer for Radio 702 in Johannesburg. [1] By the late 1990s he was working in Canada as producer of the morning news program Canada AM . [1] During his time as producer of that show, he became particularly noted for a feature which saw a man and a woman confined to a loft for one week with only a credit card and the Internet; [3] by 2001 he had expanded the concept into U8TV: The Lofters, which placed a group of young Canadians in a Real World -style communal housing situation while working in television production as hosts of various talk and entertainment newsmagazine series. [2]
Following the cancellation of The Lofters, he joined television station CKXT-TV ("Toronto 1") as producer of its nightly news. [4] After the station cancelled its news programming in 2005, he moved to the Global Television Network to become the founding producer of Entertainment Tonight Canada . [5] By 2008 he held the senior role of vice-president of strategic programming and senior executive producer of information and entertainment programming for all CanWest Media broadcast properties, [6] when he left that role to become producer of The Early Show for CBS in the United States. [7]
He left CBS in at the end of 2009, [8] and joined Harpo Productions in 2010 to become executive producer of The Nate Berkus Show . [9] He then moved to WPIX-TV in 2013 to become executive producer of its morning newscast, [10]
After leaving WPIX in 2015 he launched his own production firm, Narativ Studios, and returned to Canada as producer of The Weekly with Wendy Mesley .
Award | Year | Category | Work | Result | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gemini Awards | 1999 | Best Talk or Information Program or Series | Canada AM | Nominated | [11] |
2000 | Best Live Special Event Coverage | Nominated | [12] | ||
2002 | Best Talk Series | So Gay TV | Nominated | [13] | |
2004 | Best News Special Event Coverage | Toronto Tonight : "The Cecilia Tragedy" | Nominated | [14] | |
2006 | Best General/Human Interest Series | Entertainment Tonight Canada | Nominated | [15] |