Around 12 Muskoka cottagers will be the subject of a new “Summer House-inspired” reality TV show currently in the midst of casting for its pilot.
Summer House is a hit TV show that airs on Bravo, where a group of affluent New Yorkers spend their summers at a beach house in Montauk partying, playing, and weathering their fair share of drama. Now, a newly-proposed show seeks to replicate that concept, only with drama ensuing against the backdrop of s’more roasts, dockside tanning seshes, and watercolour sunsets.
A self-proclaimed “Bravo-holic,” L.A.-based producer Lafe Jordan made the pivot from Emmy-nominated, scripted television to reality TV during the pandemic. He says his dream is to create his own Housewives-level hit and is confident the Muskoka region represents a rich, untapped market worth exploring.
“There’s so much great untapped talent in Ontario,” says Jordan. “And, I mean, I know how much joy I get out of going to the cottage in the summer, you’ve got this whole lake life that’s not like anywhere else, and I thought, Maybe there’s a show here.”
Jordan began travelling to Toronto in 2016 and, though he’s not a cottage-owner himself, he’s had the opportunity to vacation with cottage-owning friends across Muskoka and the Kawartha Lakes over the years. The region, he says, is like no other.
Photo by Lafe Jordan
Jordan and his team began casting last year, but ran out of time to deliver the show’s pilot and are now taking another stab at it a year later. So far, they’ve found around eight potential cast members but are still on the lookout for more stand-out personalities to complete the group.
For Jordan, authenticity is a huge selling point when it comes to finding the right personalities. “It’s always about being yourself, right? And that doesn’t just mean being a loud or obnoxious, that just means, ‘Hey, I am who I am, take it or leave it.’”
Those being considered are under-35-year-old cottagers with deep ties to the region. “We’re looking for people whose lives authentically have Muskoka in it,” says Jordan. “So whether that’s going to a family cottage that’s been around for 60 years, or whether they just bought their own place, or whether they don’t have a place at all, and they just crash with friends every weekend. That’s all of the above.”
While the show will be similar in premise to Summer House, one key difference is that cast members won’t be all together under one roof for the summer, reflecting the fact that most of the cast will already have their own cottages.
“Some of the people we’ve cast are kind of like, ‘Why would I go live in a house with other people when I’ve got my own cottage, like, 10 minutes away?’ And so I think we have a really cool opportunity here to show more of cottage life as it is,” says Jordan.
Production is slated to start in late July and will be carried out across the Muskoka region, with filming locations dependent on where the cast members are situated. Footage from this summer’s filming will be used to create a compelling pilot for network execs to consider, and if successful, the show could get approved for multiple episodes or more.
“We’re really just trying to show the best of Muskoka, because I know there is a show here, it’s just finding the right home for it,” says Jordan. “We’re trying to do something different that authentically shows what makes Canada great. I really hope to be architecting a new era for Canadian reality TV.”
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