The Zone
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- This article is about a segment on a Canadian television channel. For other uses, see The Zone (disambiguation)
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The Zone is the flagship weekday afternoon programming block on the Canadian television channel YTV. It airs between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET in Canada and is familiar to many Canadians who have grown up watching YTV since the early 1990s. It consists of a short segment hosted by a personality formerly called a PJ (program jockey) that airs in the space between the actual television shows, often in lieu of commercials.
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[edit] Current version of The Zone
Currently, the host is Carlos, a former dancer (not a janitor at YTV)[1]. On January 19 2007, Sugar had announced on The Zone that she would leave The Zone on January 26, 2007. Sugar has recorded her last Nuclear Donkey song and it is on Big Fun Party Mix 8 from YTV. Availble at Walmart stores. Or you can hear a sample on ytv.com under ETC Big Fun Party Mix 8. (Must have Quicktime) Now Carlos is the only host of the zone.
The program usually features the hosts and the addition of one "real" guest host. The "guest host" is sometimes just an inanimate or personified object that is spoken to. Some examples would be "the Hand in the Toilet" (the toilet was embedded in the wall; a hand came out the hole once in a while) and "the camera-man". In its early history, the Zone had featured a group of puppets known as Grogs as the co-hosts. A large television with a frame resembling a piece of purple bubble gum with eyes and other mechanical miscellany called Snit (Atul N. Rao) was once a "host" on The Zone; after him came Elvayz, a talking bust of Elvis Presley, although this character too has been removed. Occasionally, real-life guest hosts would appear on The Zone, such as Robert Munsch and environmentalist David Suzuki.
While usually following a certain theme throughout the week, there are scheduled events that usually occur during The Zone, these are:
- E-mail Mondays - Reading of fan e-mails.
- Quirky But True Tuesdays- Carlos digs up some funny stories on the Internet and tells them on air.
- Interactive Wednesdays - A poll is opened on The Zone's website on YTV.com, and people can vote on what sort of random thing should happen on the last segment of The Zone.
- Battle Zone (Sugar is now gone and Battle Zone Friday does not take place anymore)- On Fridays, viewers can send in emails suggesting two things that should battle. Carlos and Sugar take sides and try to debate which is better (for example, pens vs. pencils). Sugar is departing in January 2007, to spend a dream in Hollywood. However during this time as they're finding a new host they do not have Battle Zone.
[edit] History and Current Developments
The Zone began its life as the Afterschool Zone on YTV in 1992, with its first host being Phil Guerrero as a lone speaker seated on a stool in front of a spartan orange backdrop. The Afterschool Zone was simply a small segment that played between airings of regular television programming, primarily as an entertaining segue into the next programming block to retain viewers and to provide some level of interaction with its young audience. Similar programming existed on YTV's weekend morning broadcasts, also starring variety of hosts, labeled PJs or program jockeys as a take on DJ (disc jockey) and VJ (video jockey). This was done primarily as a tactic to comply with CRTC restrictions on advertising in children's programming: popular imported programming would run a few minutes short due to fewer ads being permitted compared to US stations. Instead of filling the time with public service announcements or other filler material (which had been the previous practice of YTV in the late 80s/early 90s), the idea of devoting several minutes between programs to interaction between live-action hosts was utilized, and has proven successful to this day.
The "Afterschool" portion of the title was soon dropped and PJ "Fresh" Phil was sometimes joined by another PJ, Jenn (although she featured more prominently during weekend morning programming and was rarely on the Zone). The segments usually involved discussion or banter on various topics, video clips, previews, and viewer letter-mail.
Eventually, the PJs were joined by a variety of puppets named the Grogs, most famous of which, was Warren: a turtle/moss character resembling a chia-pet with a grumpy voice and cynical disposition. During the Grog era, a ceiling hung television was prominent on the show and PJ "Fresh" Phil sat behind a desk in a style similar to a news broadcast. On January 1, 1994 the Grogs - led by Warren - staged a fictional coup of the YTV television station and "hijacked" the network, which was retitled WTV (as in Warren TV), to establish their demands. PJ "Fresh" Phil and PJ Jenn eventually thwarted this at the conclusion of a long-running plotline. This signalled the end of the Grog era.
By 1995, the Zone was still hosted by Phil Guerrero (who by this time had dropped the "Fresh" moniker), PJ Jenn left the station, and the hanging television was morphed into the animatronic character Snit (Atul Rao), which displayed a pair of moving teeth on the television screen. When a primetime version of The Zone, YTV Shift, was cancelled, its former host Paul McGuire joined Phil. Eventually, the two sent Snit into space, and Snit was replaced with the prop Elvays, a plastic Elvis head with a digitally added moving mouth.
Eventually, a week of programming was devoted to a plotline which featured PJs Phil and Paul on a quest hunting for extra-terrestrials and making a discovery. This discovery was revealed to be the return of the Snit character (minus its familiar purple coloring). Following cosmetic and technological upgrades, Snit went on to host Snit Station, a weekend morning programming block, replacing Brainwash - the block has since been renamed to The Vortex, which has now become CRUNCH.
As a slight format change, the "You Rule" campaign was replaced with a "Keep it Weird" theme. When the New Year came,Paul and Phil were found to not be 'Y2K Compatible', and were thus replaced with comedian Pat Kelly and Jenny Katie Racicot (previously PJ Katie on Treehouse, with no relation to the original PJ Jenn or PJ Jazzy Jan). Phil went on to star in a new YTV show "Gamerz" from 1998-2000. Elvays was replaced with "the Hand in the Toilet". The move was seen as questionable by many fans, as the "Keep it Weird" slogan did not seem to fare well with the audience. One of the most memorable moments in the "Jenny and Pat" era was the formation of Nuclear Donkey, a band featured at the end of the YTV's compilation album Big Fun Party Mix. Nuclear Donkey still exists as of today. Another memorable moment was its Superheroes and Superstars promotion, which had the two pose as heroes. (Pat's character held a deep hatred for Corey Hart, while Jenny's character hated the word "chesterfield", which someone would inevitably say). At one point during their tenure, a bizarre plotline emerged involving electronic insects known as yokomites that were under the control of a mysterious chicken-man named Fiendly Fowl. They were created by Fowl to destroy the station, should his demand to be given the station was ignored.
With Jenny's departure, Pat had a brief breakdown as a one-week plotline, where he demanded a new co-host or he would not continue to host YTV. He was delivered a box near the end of the week that contained Sugar, and the two co-hosted the block afterwards. However, Pat himself soon also departed, leaving Sugar as the lone host. A plotline emerged where Sugar would discover that one of the YTV janitors was playing with the cameras during off-hours, clandestinely acting out as Zone host. Employing detective skills to track down this janitor, Sugar eventually discovered Carlos and invited him to become her co-host.
On Monday, January 23, 2007 Sugar said she would leave the Zone to pursue a life in Hollywood. Carlos will still host the block.
