''MVP: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives'' (known as ''Trophy Wives'' in the United Kingdom) is a 2008

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

that debuted January 11, 2008 on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

. The program was cancelled by the CBC on March 7, 2008. Poor ratings and high production costs were cited as reasons for the cancellation.

Summary

The show portrays the lives of

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

players and their wives when they are off the

ice Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...

. The show is set in Canada, where hockey is a favourite sport. The show centres on the Mustangs, a professional hockey team. After the death of veteran captain Adam McBride, there are many changes in store for the team and others connected: Gabe McCall, the coach's son, becomes the team captain; a rookie named Trevor Lemonde is controversially added to the team; McBride's wife, Evelyn, and their daughter Molly, must adjust to a new lifestyle after there is no money left to them. According to producer Mary Young Leckie, the show is inspired by, although not a direct adaptation of, the British series ''

Footballers' Wives ''Footballers' Wives'' is a British television drama about fictional Premier League football club Earls Park F.C., its players and their wives. It was broadcast on ITV from 2002 to 2006. The show initially focuses on three very different coupl ...

''.

Cast

Lucas Bryant Lucas Bryant (born September 28, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor, best known for his role as Nathan Wuornos in the Syfy TV channel series '' Haven'' (2010–2015). Early life Bryant was born in Elmira, Ontario, Canada to Susan Hodges Bryant ...

as Gabe McCall * Dillon Casey as Trevor Lemonde *

Matthew Bennett Matthew Ray Bennett (born April 9, 1968) is a Canadian actor, writer, and director. He is best known for portraying Detective Len Harper on ''Cold Squad'' and his recurring roles as Aaron Doral cylon model number five in the reimagined ''Battle ...

as Malcolm LeBlanc * Peter Miller as Damon Trebuche *

Kristin Booth Kristin Booth (born August 28, 1974) is a Canadian actress. Early life Booth grew up in Kitchener , near the Shakespeare festival town of Stratford, Ontario. She made her professional acting debut when she was 12, playing an orphan in a summer ...

as Connie * Anastasia Phillips as Tabbi *

Deborah Odell Deborah Lee O'Dell is a Canadian actress and singer. She has appeared in various films and TV series. Career Deborah made her acting debut in the 1997 fantasy film '' A Simple Wish'', which featured Mara Wilson and Martin Short Martin Hay ...

as Evelyn McBride * Natalie Krill as Molly * Olivia Waldriff as Grace Morris *

Amanda Brugel Amanda Brugel (born March 24, 1978) is a Canadian actress. Born and raised in Pointe-Claire (a suburb of Montreal), Quebec, she made her acting debut in the drama film '' Vendetta'' (1999). This was followed by roles in the comedy film ''A Diva's ...

as Megan Chandler * Alec McClure as Owen Chandler * Deanna Dezmari as Katrina

Production

The

Screen Door A screen door can refer to a hinged storm door (cold climates) or hinged screen door (warm climates) covering an exterior door, or a screened sliding door used with sliding glass doors. A screen door incorporates screen mesh to block birds, flyi ...

production began filming in 2006 in the

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

areas and generated wide interest including from the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

itself. The budget for the first ten episodes was approximately $14 million. It was distributed by Screendoor International.

Episodes

United States

MVP premiered Thursday, June 19, 2008 on

SOAPnet Soapnet was an American basic cable network owned by the Disney–ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network's programming was oriented towards the soap opera genre; on launch, Soapnet carried primetime encores of ABC' ...

, and had a special promotional airing Friday, June 20, 2008 on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

after the

Daytime Emmy Awards The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NA ...

, where it was the lowest-rated Big Four network program of the week.Lisa de Moraes - Disney's 'Camp Rock': Lodged at the Summit - washingtonpost.com
/ref> The promotional subtitle in the United States was changed to ''He Shoots, She Scores''.

United Kingdom

Digital broadcaster

Living TV Sky Witness is a British pay television tv channel, channel owned and operated by Sky Limited, Sky, a division of Comcast. The channel primarily broadcasts procedural dramas from the United States aimed at the 18–45 age demographic. Sky Ital ...

has secured the rights to MVP in the UK, but only showed four episodes since airing it on May 4, 2009. The series has been re-titled ''Trophy Wives'' for the British market. After re-branding itself from Living Loves to

Sky Living Loves Sky Living Loves (formerly Living Loves) is a British television channel owned by British Sky Broadcasting. It launched on 5 July 2010 and closed on 21 February 2012. It was the sister channel of Sky Living and Sky Livingit. History On 1 July 2 ...

starting January 2011, episodes have been re-shown (including those not previously broadcast on Living TV) every Thursday and Saturday.

References

External links

Behind the MVP door
*
Inside the CBC - MVP

Hot enough to melt the ice: CBC's MVP
* {{IMDb title, 0808358, MVP 2008 Canadian television series debuts 2008 Canadian television series endings 2000s Canadian drama television series CBC Television original programming Canadian television soap operas Ice hockey television series Television shows filmed in London, Ontario Television shows filmed in Toronto Television shows filmed in Hamilton, Ontario