Scott Wabano and Kairyn Potts are now casting for theIR second season co-hosting the reality TV dating show ‘Rezervations for Two.’ Photo courtesy APTN
It’s nearly summer in downtown Tkarón:to (Toronto), and a crowd gathers around the entrance to the TIFF Lightbox on King Street West.
While it’s almost 8 p.m., the warm early June breeze and light blue sky is a reminder of the summer solstice, just around the corner.
Moviegoers file into the city’s star-studded venue, many adorned in beads, ribbons, brooches and hide as they walk along the red carpet.
The imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival is in full swing, bringing filmmakers and audiences across the country together to celebrate excellence in Indigenous cinema.
Tonight, a movie isn’t being shown, but a buzzy reality TV show.
Rezervations for Two is set to premiere on Monday on Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and CBC Gem, with the first episode also available for free on YouTube.
Kairyn Potts, Crystal Dubois and Scott Wabano address the audience at imagineNATIVE film festival on June 3. Photo by Daniel Opasinis
It’s described as a simple “feel-good dating series” shot in Winnipeg, says Crystal Dubois, APTN’s development, factual and special events executive.
The show, she says proudly, highlights all the lovable complexities that Indigenous communities have to offer.
“There’s an appetite for those Indigenous stories that expand beyond what audiences have traditionally seen,” Dubois, from Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, tells IndigiNews in an interview.
As the executive producer for the series, she takes the stage before the show’s June 3 screening to call up co-hosts Kairyn (Kai) Potts and Scott Wabano — two Indigenous content creators, and co-hosts of The Real Rank Podcast.
The two are donning what could only be called art-pieces of clothing in an opposites-attract black-and-white scheme.
Potts’s braid falls over their right shoulder, wrapped in intertwining white cord. He is Nakota Sioux, from Paul Band First Nation and Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation.
Meanwhile Wabano — who is Cree from Mushkegowuk and Eeyou Istchee territories — sports a wolverine-like haircut and jet black sunglasses.
“The show wouldn’t be the same without them,” Dubois says in her opening remarks.
“I will say, getting something like this off the ground takes people who are open; it takes people who are supportive. It just takes a great team.”
‘Looking to set some baddies up’
It’s not long until the lights dim and the projectors flicker on.
“Hi, cousins! It’s your favourite aunties, Kai and Scott — podcasters, fashionistas, and now matchmakers,” the duo remarks in the show’s intro.
“Oh babes, we are in the heart of Turtle Island, in our fabulous ‘Indigi-loft,’ looking to set some baddies up on two blind dates, and hopefully one of them is with their forever snag.”
Dubois says she was scrolling through TikTok when she came across a clip of Potts and Wabano hosting their podcast.
“There’s just something special here,” she thought, “and I need to work with them in some capacity.”
When gears were in motion for Rezervations for Two, she knew she’d already found her hosts.
“It has to be these two,” Dubois recalls saying.
“They did a little interview skit — even though I already knew it had to be them.”
Indigenous content creators Scott Wabano (left) and Kairyn Potts co-host Aboriginal Peoples Television Network’s new dating show ‘Rezervations for Two.’ Photo courtesy APTN
At the ImagineNATIVE debut, they screened the first two episodes of the series.
Both hold the same format: Potts and Wabano get to know their contestant and what they’re looking for in a partner, then the hosts each choose a potential suitor to set up a date.
In the first episode we follow contestant Kyle, who’s Métis and has an affinity for doing impressions, one of which he can’t help but pull out in every interaction.
In episode two we meet Lionel, a man from Swan Lake First Nation with a pair of sunglasses and — as Potts and Wabano say — “a deadly uncle vibe.”
“We were working through our production team to find people who were interesting and genuinely putting themselves out there,” Dubois says.
Those casting decisions hit home with the audience as they laugh and cheer through the dates on screen.
“Hearing the laughter and seeing the audience respond the way that they did was so, so incredibly validating,” Dubois says.
While the lucky contestants from those first two episodes didn’t end up hitched, they did play a part in Indigenous media history.
“I’m hoping that it really opens doors for more indigenous creators to tell stories across every genre, including reality,” Dubois says.
She says she’s thought of an expansion into reality TV since she was young.
“I think a lot of Indigenous people joke about ‘shacking up’ and ‘snagging,’ but it is real,” Dubois says. “There’s also the reality that we date, we fall in love, and we experience heartbreak.”
‘We’re gonna try and find a special forever snag’
As the screenings end we’re joined again by Potts and Wabano, walking on stage with a set up of chairs and a curtain.
“Give a round of applause for all of these guests,” Potts says.
“Like, that’s hard to do, You don’t understand. First of all, to go on a first date blind. Second of all, it’s really difficult to do it with like 10,000 people looking at you and cameras and two judgy Two-Spirit demons.”
They pull the chairs together, three on one side of the curtain and a single chair hidden on the other.
“This whole show is all about love, and I feel like right now in this generation and this time of media, everybody is so desperate for love,” Wabano says.
“So we’re gonna try and find a special forever snag, maybe, for somebody in the audience?”
Three bachelors are picked by the dynamic duo to blind-date a member of the imagineNATIVE crew.
A makeshift dating show on stage at the premiere of ‘REZervations for Two’ on June 3 in Tkarón:to. Photo by Daniel Opasinis
“You know, you guys, I like my men like I like my ‘Bepsi,” Potts jokes. “I like them sweet, I like them brown, and they give me cavities.”
Over the next half hour, the concealed imagineNATIVE crew member goes back and forth asking the contestants questions before choosing her partner to take on an expenses-covered date to Oliver & Bonacini, an upscale restaurant in Tkarón:to’s downtown core.
When she chooses contestant number one, he runs through the curtain, grabs her by the hand and shimmies of the stage, heading out to catch their dinner reservation.
As season one of Rezervations for Two is premiering this week, it’s now casting for its second season.
“I think there are definitely moments that will make you cringe,” Dubois says. “There’s more of those in the best way possible.
“But also I think that there’s a lot of heart, and I think that the audiences are really going to connect with a lot of the people that we have.”
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