The Zone
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
television channel YTV. It airs between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET
North American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
in Canada. The block itself can be considered a show as 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.
Current version
Currently, the host of The Zone is Carlos Bustamente. During various occasions, Andy Chapman, who also hosts sister block Crunch, will replace or join Carlos.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 by Nayan Patel. 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." Also a seen but never heard voice, Egghead (the director). 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
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, although this character has been removed as well. Occasionally, real-life guest hosts would appear on The Zone, such as Robert Munsch
Robert Munsch
Robert Norman Munsch, CM is an American-born Canadian children's author.-Personal life and career:Robert Munsch was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
and environmentalist David Suzuki
David Suzuki
David Suzuki, CC, OBC is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a Ph.D in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department of the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001...
.
While usually following a certain theme throughout the week, there are scheduled events that have occurred during The Zone, such as:
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Music Mondays | Carlos interviews musicians and does some tunes of his own |
| Quirky But True Tuesdays | Carlos brings up some funny stories on the Internet and tells them on the air in a news style format |
| Game Drop Wednesdays | A new game will be released on The Zone's website on YTV.com, every Wednesday. |
| Big Fun Fridays | In this special, of which two episodes have thus far aired, Carlos interviews various people. During the first Hyper Action Friday, which aired May 5, Carlos interviewed a team of martial arts experts. During the second, Carlos visited an art museum. |
History and current developments
The Zone began its life as the Afterschool Zone on YTV in 1992, with its first host Phil Guerrero, 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 DJDisc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
(disc jockey) and VJ (video jockey). This was done primarily as a tactic to comply with Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission 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 1992 in the late 1980s/early 1990s), the idea of devoting several minutes between programs to interaction between live-action hosts was used, and has proven successful to this day.
The "Afterschool" portion of the title was soon dropped and PJ "Phresh" 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
Grogs (YTV)
Grogs were the different puppet characters on various YTV programming blocks between 1992 and 1994. They were created by 21 year olds Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon in their first professional puppeteering job. The duo later founded The Grogs puppet company, and went on to do other puppet based...
, most famous of which, was Warren: a turtle/moss character resembling a chia-pet with a grumpy voice and cynical monkeys 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
Paul McGuire
Paul McGuire is a host on Canada's CMT network.-Biography:He was brought up in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada where he attended York University.Since 1994, He worked on YTV's live events, and later switched to CMT....
joined Phil. On October 31, 1997, 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 was later renamed The Vortex, before its current name 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
Treehouse TV
Treehouse TV is a Canadian English language cable television specialty channel with programming targeted towards preschoolers that was launched on October 17, 1997. Its name comes from YTV's old children's programming block, The 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 and also The Anti-Gravity Room
The Anti-Gravity Room
The Anti-Gravity Room was a weekly Canadian television program of the early- to mid-1990s, spotlighting comic books and video games, and hosted by Nick Scoullar and Phil Guerrero. It was produced by YTV in Canada, and was carried in the United States on the Sci-Fi Channel...
during the mid to late nineties. Elvays was replaced with "the Hand in the Toilet". 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 and weakness was handshakes, while Jenny's character hated the word "chesterfield
Couch
A couch, also called a sofa, is an item of furniture designed to seat more than one person, and providing support for the back and arms. Typically, it will have an armrest on either side. In homes couches are normally found in the family room, living room, den or the lounge...
", 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. At the end, there was an animated comic where Pat and Jenny went into the yokomite's lair to defeat them. The hand in the toilet was "killed" saving them.
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 built a giant wooden crate in the studio parking lot and locked himself inside it as a protest until YTV hired a new co-host. At the end of the week Stephanie "Sugar" Beard
Stephanie Beard
Stephanie Beard is a Canadian actress, voice actress and television and radio personality. Her radio host persona goes by Suga BayBee, and as co-host of The Zone, she was called Sugar.Beard was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
came along claiming to be Pat's new co-host and she opened the crate with a crowbar to reveal a very messy Pat who was in desperate need of a shower. 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 January 19, 2007, Sugar announced on that she would leave The Zone on January 26, 2007. Sugar's last Nuclear Donkey song appeared on Big Fun Party Mix 8, a compilation from YTV. Carlos hosted The Zone alone until Monday, December 31 2007, on The Zone's Countdown to Halfway to New Year's party, when he introduced his new co-host, Joyce. She had recently appeared on The Zone working at the Tree Farm, where Carlos chose The Zone's Christmas Tree. Joyce co-hosted until January 2, 2009, when she left to travel the world. In fall 2009, The Zone returned to starting at 3:00 pm instead of 4:00 pm.
Programs
The schedule for Monday-Friday on The Zone is as follows- SidekickSidekick (TV series)Sidekick is a Canadian animated television series created by Todd Kauffman and Joey So. The series first aired on YTV on September 30, 2010 in Canada as a special preview and officially premiered on October 2, 2010 at 10:30AM ET. It premiered on Cartoon Network on June 13, 2011 at 3:30PM ET in the...
at 03:25 pm EST - SpongeBob SquarePantsSpongeBob SquarePantsSpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
at 03:55 pm EST - The Penguins of MadagascarThe Penguins of MadagascarThe Penguins of Madagascar is an American CGI animated television series airing on Nickelodeon. It stars nine characters from the DreamWorks Animation animated film Madagascar: The penguins Skipper , Kowalski , Private , and Rico ; the lemurs King Julien , Maurice , and Mort...
at 04:25 pm EST - Mondays to Thursdays - TUFF Puppy at 4:25 pm EST - Fridays only
- Fairy OddParents at 05:00 pm EST
- SpongeBob SquarePantsSpongeBob SquarePantsSpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
at 05:30 pm EST