View source for EP Daily

{{short description|Canadian daily entertainment news television program}}
{{Infobox television
| image                = EP Daily logo.jpg
| caption              = Logo
| alt_name             = 
| genre                = Video Games<br />Entertainment
| creator              = Victor Lucas
| developer            = EP Media Ltd. (formerly Greedy Productions)
| writer               = Victor Lucas<br />Blake Siefken<br />Ryan Nicolas<br />Rob Koval<br />Jason Margolis<br />Geoff Chapman<br />Miri Jedeiken<br />Shaun Hatton<br />Marcus Onischak<br />Alistair Brown
| director             = Victor Lucas
| creative_director    = 
| presenter            = Victor Lucas<br />Marissa Roberto<br />Scott C. Jones<br />Jose Sanchez<br />Miri Jedeikin<br />Shaun Hatton<br />Ben Silverman<br />Steve Tilley<br />Raju Mudhar<br />Ben Bolea
| judges               = 
| theme_music_composer = [[Paul Ruskay]]
| opentheme            = 
| endtheme             = 
| composer             = Audio Network (music)
| country              = Canada
| language             = English
| num_seasons          = 25
| num_episodes         = 
| list_episodes        = 
| executive_producer   = [[Victor Lucas (television producer)|Victor Lucas]]
| producer             = Jason Margolis<br />[[Rob Koval]]
| location             = [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]]<br />[[Toronto]], [[Ontario]]<br />[[San Francisco]], [[California]]<br />[[Los Angeles]], [[California]]
| cinematography       = [[Richard Grundy]]
| editor               = Jordan Taylor (Lead)
| camera               = 
| runtime              = 
| company              = [[Greedy Productions Ltd.]]
| network              = [[G4 (Canadian TV channel)|G4 Canada]]<br />[[City (TV network)|City]]<br />[[Broadcast syndication|Syndication]]<br />[[Youtoo America]]
| first_aired          = {{start date|1997|9|1}}
| last_aired           = {{end date|2015}}
| related              = ''[[Reviews on the Run]]''<br />''Greedy Docs''
}}

'''''EP Daily''''' (formerly '''''The Electric Playground''''') is a daily news television show that covers video games, movies, TV shows, comic books, collectibles and gadgets. Created and executive produced by host Victor Lucas, and his [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]] production company EP Media Ltd (formerly Greedy Productions Ltd), ''EP Daily'' was a staple on airwaves since its debut in September 1997. The show continues to produce and publish content on the Electric Playground Network's [[YouTube]] channel.

==Synopsis==

The show featured previews of upcoming video games, video game industry news, and interviews with celebrity gamers and people in the video game industry; as well as segments that look at the latest toys, games, comics, and gadgets. EP's hosts travel the world bringing viewers behind the scenes of the global game business to meet the planet's most respected video game creators. The show featured daily coverage from [[Vancouver]], [[Toronto]], [[San Francisco]] and [[Los Angeles]].

==Cast/hosts==
'''Current cast and correspondents''' include: [[Victor Lucas (television producer)|Victor Lucas]], guest correspondent [[Johnny Millenium]] of [[Happy Console Gamer]]

'''Former cast, crew and correspondents''' have included: [[Tommy Tallarico]], [[Julie Stoffer]], [[Jade Raymond]], [[Geoff Keighley]], [[Jose "Fubar" Sanchez]], [[Ben Silverman]], [[Steve Tilley]], [[Donna Mei-Ling Park]], [[Kelly Benson]], [[Briana McIvor]], [[Shaun Hatton]], [[Miri Jedeikin]], [[Scott C. Jones]], [[Marissa Roberto]], [[Raju Mudhar]], [[Zoe Flower]] and [[Evangeline Lilly]].

''The Electric Playground'' began its life as online news magazine founded by Victor Lucas, John Shaw and Torben Rolfsen before it was brought to television when the team was joined by Scott Barrett in 1997 – who remained with the show to direct the first two seasons. At the end of the second season, Scott accepted an offer to join Shiny Entertainment, so Victor took on triple duty as the show's producer, director and host.

== History ==
''EP Daily'' aired on G4 Canada and City. The show had previously been aired in Canada on Space, Razer, A Channel, and OMNI.1, and in the United States on the [[Science Channel]] and [[G4 (American TV network)|G4]].

The Electric Playground began as a website (elecplay.com) in 1995. In September 1997 the show premiered in Canada and along the US west coast in a 30-minute weekly format.

In 2002, the reviews segment of the show, "Reviews on the Run", was spun off into its own show. It was known as ''Judgment Day'' in the United States and ''Reviews on the Run'' in Canada. The final airing of Judgment Day on G4 was in December 2005. In 2010 "Reviews on the Run" was expanded out to a daily format. The show's website was ''reviewsontherun.com''. Reviews on the Run ended in 2014 after 13 seasons.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/user/EPNetworkTV|title=EPNdotTV|website=YouTube|access-date=2017-11-07}}</ref>

On December 31, 2006, Lucas announced on the ''EP Daily'' forums that Greedy Productions had cancelled its contract with CHUM television, which had broadcast ''Electric Playground'' and ''Reviews on the Run'' on SPACE and A-Channel, and signed a two-year exclusive deal with Rogers Communications, to broadcast the shows on G4 Canada and then additionally on other Rogers owned TV stations. ''The Electric Playground'' aired only once on OMNI.1, on September 3, 2007.

On December 15, 2007, the series premiered on [[CITY-DT|City Toronto]] and [[CKVU-DT|City Vancouver]], airing episodes that had aired on G4 Canada.{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}}

In August 2008, EP Daily premiered in a daily format. The Electric Playground remained weekly, wrapping up the week in video games, technology, and entertainment.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.straight.com/article-166054/electric-playground-goes-daily|title=The Electric Playground goes daily|date=2008-10-15|work=Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly|access-date=2017-11-07|language=en}}</ref>

Beginning on December 1, 2010, EP Daily airs every weeknight at 8pm on SCI FI Channel Australia. This ceased on December 31, 2013, when SFTV Australia was closed after the owners of the channel failed to reach an agreement with Foxtel, and has now been replaced by NBC Universal's Syfy Australia <ref>Scifitv.com.au. [http://www.scifitv.com.au/Blog/2010/10/the-electric-playground-coming-to-sci-fi-dec-1/ The Electric Playground Coming To SCI FI Dec 1] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230221639/http://www.scifitv.com.au/Blog/2010/10/the-electric-playground-coming-to-sci-fi-dec-1/ |date=2010-12-30 }}</ref>

In September 2010, the show returned to America on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] stations in select cities in the United States.<ref>hollywoodreporter.com. [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ppi-greedy-prods-launching-electric-32451 PPI, Greedy Prods. Launching 'Electric Playground' on ABC Stations]</ref> It featured two specials that aired on Sunday, January 16, 2011: "Everythings Cool Awards" and "Cool Things For 2011". Weekly episodes began airing in September 2011. Each episode is an hour split into two parts, either airing back to back or at separate times, depending on the station that's airing the show.  Daily episodes began airing on select stations on September 3, 2012.<ref name="ppi.tv" /><ref name="epdaily.tv" />  As of January 2015, none of the USA broadcasters including Reelz and Youtoo channels were continuing to broadcast EP Daily in the US markets. Some of the American stations replaced ''EP Daily'' with televised versions of ''[[Q (radio show)|Q]]'' starting in September 2014.

The show was known as ''The Electric Playground'' until July 2012, at which point the name was changed to ''EP Daily''.{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}}

Late in 2014, Shaun Hatton left the series and Reelz has decided not to renew the series on the network. The show went on hiatus in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://leaderpost.com/technology/gaming/canadian-video-game-tv-show-electric-playground-is-currently-on-hiatus | title=Canadian video game TV show Electric Playground is currently on hiatus |author-first1=Mark|author-last1=Melnychuk|date=31 December 2015|work=Regina Leader-Post}}</ref>

As of 2016, ''EP Daily'' no longer airs on [[G4 (Canadian TV channel)|G4]] and [[City (TV network)|City]]. The show continues to produce content, such as daily Rundown segments and interviews, on the Electric Playground Network's [[YouTube]] channel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://epn.tv/all/type-of/news/ep-daily-rundown-november-25-2015/|title=EP Daily Rundown - November 25, 2015|work=EPN.TV|access-date=27 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208112824/http://epn.tv/all/type-of/news/ep-daily-rundown-november-25-2015/|archive-date=8 December 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> Since then, Victor Lucas has been looking for new partners to support the show.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://epn.tv/all/type-of/news/announcement-about-the-future-of-ep/|title=Announcement About the Future of EP|work=EPN.TV|access-date=8 December 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210212957/http://epn.tv/all/type-of/news/announcement-about-the-future-of-ep/|archive-date=10 December 2015}}</ref>

==International broadcasters==
{| class="wikitable"
! Country !! Network(s) !! Notes !! Ref
|-
|United States
|[[Science (TV network)|Discovery Science Channel]] (2001–2002), [[G4 (American TV network)|G4]] (2002–2006), [[Television syndication|Syndication]] (2010–2014), [[Youtoo TV]] (2012–Jan 2015), [[Reelz]] (2013–Jan 2015)
| Started airing weekly episodes in September 2011,<ref name="ppi.tv">{{cite web|url=http://www.ppi.tv/news_june072011.shtml|title=PPI RELEASING|work=ppi.tv|access-date=4 April 2015}}</ref> the daily version was made available in select markets on September 3, 2012. Began airing in April 2013 on Reelz.
|<ref name="epdaily.tv">{{cite web|url=http://epdaily.tv/all/type-of/news/ep-daily-m-f-strip-to-launch-monday-september-3rd/|title="EP DAILY" TO LAUNCH DAILY IN US ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3rd|work=epdaily.tv|access-date=4 April 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130418185624/http://epdaily.tv/all/type-of/news/ep-daily-m-f-strip-to-launch-monday-september-3rd/|archive-date=18 April 2013}}</ref> 
|-
|Australia
|[[SF Channel (Australia)|SF Channel]] (relaunched as [[Syfy (Australia)|Syfy]] on January 1, 2014)
|Unknown if EP Daily will be shown in Australia at all in 2014
|
|-
|Canada
|[[G4 (Canadian TV channel)|G4]], [[City (TV network)|City]], [[Space (Canadian TV channel)|Space (TV channel)]], Razer, [[A-Channel (Craig Media)|A-Channel]], [[CFMT-DT|OMNI 1]] 
|Aired only once on OMNI.1 
|
|-
|}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[https://epn.tv/ ''Electric Playground Network'' official website]
*{{IMDb title|id=0270764|title=The Electric Playground}}

{{G4 Original Broadcast Line-up}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Electric Playground, The}}

[[Category:Video game news websites]]
[[Category:Citytv original programming]]
[[Category:Television shows about video games]]
[[Category:Television shows filmed in Vancouver]]
[[Category:1990s Canadian television news shows]]
[[Category:2000s Canadian television news shows]]
[[Category:2010s Canadian television news shows]]
[[Category:1997 Canadian television series debuts]]
[[Category:G4 (American TV network) original programming]]