The Beaverton: Canada's newest take on political satire and fake news

By Giorgio Lee

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As Miguel Rivas reads over his script for Comedy Network’s newest satirical news program The Beaverton, he starts to feel anxious knowing the show’s realistic style of reporting will be fresh and unique to viewers.

“Our top story, the United States was found dead last night in its North American home,” Co-host Miguel Rivas announced at the beginning of the first episode following Donald Trumps presidential win. “ Investigators have ruled the death a suicide as the result of 300 million gun shots to the foot.”

“The nation was only 240 years old.”

The Beaverton is not the first show to be presented as a mock newscast.  Similar shows such as Saturday Night Live’s mock news segment “Weekend Update” and Fox News’s short lived series The 1/2 Hour News Hour have followed the same format.

 But what makes The Beaverton unique in Rivas’s opinion, despite small similarities in format, is that it doesn’t center solely on sketch comedy.

Instead Rivas says the series focuses primarily on presenting fake news in a real news setting, while still managing to piss on “delusional” world leaders and their skeptical views.

“What separates The Beaverton from other shows is Emma Hunter and I use our real names,” Co-host Miguel Rivas says. “It’s less of a comedian you hang out with commenting on the news and it’s more using the medium to present it like actual news.”

The show hosted by Hunter and Rivas is based on the success of the fake news publication The Beaverton, which was founded in 2010. After years of publishing fake political and local stories to its audience, The Beaverton and Comedy Network struck a deal in July 2016. Announcing that the series would be picked up for a 2016-2017 season.

Aisha Alfa, a stand up comedian and actress on the series Degrassi: Next Class, has been a field correspondent on the show since the very beginning. Not the typical field reporter people usually see on an actual newscast, Alfa says her role was quite unique as she was able to voice her opinion on the topics she covers without getting a slap on the wrist by writers.

“For us its exciting because we can say or do whatever we want unlike other shows out there because we’re fake news,” Alfa says. “We have head writers, associate writers who’ll come pitch ideas for stories, write it, and then send it to us actors.”

“We can go through it to see if there needs to be any shifts, suggestions, depending on what we think is funny, and what we’re comfortable saying in the show.”

“The writers are really great with being open to that type of stuff.”

Whether its uncovering an ancient white burial ground underneath a planned casino operated by the Chippewa nation or interviewing fake teachers about the Liberal government’s choice to let schools all across the province teach sex-education the way they want to, Alfa says doing these stories gives her the freedom to shed light on timely issues-in a way that honors journalistic practices and political humor.

“Right now in the world of politics there’s so much crazy stuff going on and it’s easy to come up with the funny of these issues,” Rivas explained. “The Beaverton is more like an actual anchor show, others shows are more sketch oriented. If anything The Beaverton would be more of a weekend update, except with a added bit of pre-taped news parts.”

Also working as a field correspondent on the show, Donavon Stinson says he thrives on being a reporter that can add comic relief to almost any situation. Well known for his work on the HBO show Call Me Fitz, Stinson explains why the improvisation in his stories make The Beaverton unique.

“I love playing this reporter and I also love that the reports we do lend themselves to a lot of improvisation, especially since The Beaverton does a great job at casting other roles,” Stinson says.

With a role that requires Stinson to think of fresh and creative stories every so often, Stinson recalls doing a report on “whatever happened to the Electric Circus dancers” as being a piece that “stands out” the most over the past two seasons. In the fake reporter package, Stinson shows the journey of how the dancers from the 1900s live TV show Electric Circus try to reintegrate in today’s society.

As Stinson and the rest of cast close out season two in early 2018, he says The Beaverton’s ability to push the limits of humor is the reason why the show is still around today.

“The Beaverton’s ability to be edgier, being able to push the boundaries of our comedy since we are on later on Comedy Networks helps a lot and it’s what separates us,” Stinson says. “The Beaverton has tapped into something special and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”