Canadian Football League star Nathan Rourke was not impressed by the cast of Canada Shore. The reality television stars were a big distraction for the BC Lions during practice.
He does not want to see them invited back.
Even though the cast might’ve been annoying the CFL quarterback and his head coach accidentally cut a great promotional read for Paramount+. Their comments about Canada Shore make it sound like we should tune in to see what happened.
What is Canada Shore?
Most simply put, Canada Shore is the Great White North’s answer to the iconic ‘Shore’ franchise. It is the same concept as Jersey Shore, but make it Canada. 10 wild Canadians live in the same house for the summer. The show documents their adventures.
The first episode of the first season dropped at the end of January. A new episode was released on the next 10 Thursdays thereafter.
The cast consists of 10 singletons from all over the country. Bauer is from Prince Albert, Cristopher is from Toronto, Emmett is from Vancouver, Emmy is from Fredericton, Ethan is from Newmarket, Gizelle is from Mississauga, Isaiah is from Calgary, Keyaira is from Halifax, Lila is from Toronto and Ryleigh is from Bridgewater. They all come together at a lake house in Kelowna.
Although the viewership numbers from the first season of Canada Shore have not been released, the show was popular enough to be renewed for a second season. Filming is already underway. Residents in the McKinley are were notified that the show would be filming at a property on Shayler Place from June 26 to July 23. The house next door serves as the television crew’s office.
Residents in the area tried to turn to the show’s production into a political issue and lobbied with the City of Kelowna about permits and evacuation routs. The city came back to say the studio did nothing wrong.
Locals were not the only ones who were disrupted by the presence of Canada Shore.
Canadian Football League quarterback Nathan Rourke found the cast to be a distraction at practice.
The British Columbia Lions typically play their home games at BC Place in downtown Vancouver. However, the stadium is currently being used for the FIFA World Cup so the team temporarily relocated their early-summer games to an expanded community stadium in Kelowna. The Apple Bowl was expanded into a 18,500-seat venue for the first few weeks of the season.
The house used for the second season of Canada Shore is located less than 20 minutes from the BC Lions’ temporary stadium. Members of the cast were in attendance for the most recent home game over the weekend.
They also showed up to practice last week and got involved with the on-field activities. Running back James Butler did not mind that they were there.
“I liked it, honestly. Me and my fiancée are big fans of the show; we actually watch Canada Shore, so I thought it was kind of cool. They were just doing water, doing their Canada Shore things. They’re young, you know what I’m saying, so they’re just doing what young people do. They just have fun; they yell. They weren’t really doing nothing crazy. We were on the field when they were on the sideline, but our only interaction was they just gave us some water, stuff like that. It wasn’t crazy, but they were just young, and that’s the show, if you watch it.”
Quarterback Nathan Rourke, the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player in 2024, did not agree with his backfieldmate. He does not like the show or its cast because of their visit to practice.
“Not [a fan] after what happened, no” he said. “That’s all I’m going to say.”
The Lions went on to win their game on the Fourth of July with the cast in attendance. Head coach Buck Pierce does not want to give them credit as good luck charms.
“No,” he said. That was it. Just no!
His and Rourke’s frustrations with the Canada Shore cast serve as a great promotional tool for the show. It makes me want to tune in to see exactly what made them so irritated.