TSN and CTV’s W5 have teamed up to investigate the issue of counterfeiting in the sports industry in the three-part original feature series FAKING IT, premiering Thursday, Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. ET on TSN’s SPORTSCENTRE, before airing in its entirety on W5 on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. ET on CTV and CTV GO.
In a special co-production powered by SPORTSCENTRE, Canada’s most-watched sports news and information show, and CTV’s W5, the most-watched investigative news program in Canada, FAKING IT is hosted by TSN Senior Correspondent Rick Westhead and directed byGemini Award-winning TSN Feature Producer Paul Harrington, with W5 Senior Producer Brett Mitchell leading the investigative team.
“When Toronto police told me how many fake NHL jerseys have flooded into the Toronto market alone, and how organized crime is becoming more invested in the business, I knew this was a story sports fans needed to hear,” said Rick Westhead, Senior Correspondent, TSN. “Fans have such strong emotional ties to their favourite players and teams, and those ties are the reason they are willing to pay so much money for jerseys, game tickets, and autographs. With FAKING IT, we look into the way those three pillars of the sports business areunder attack by counterfeiters.”
FAKING IT examines the ways in which sports fans are being deceived by fake tickets, how some sports memorabilia may not be what it seems, and how bogus team jerseys make their way into the Canadian marketplace.
Along the way, Rick Westhead visits Canada’s biggest sports memorabilia show in an attempt to test the eye of expert authenticators, talks to professional sports organizations and their fans about the proliferation of fake tickets being sold online, and takes a hidden camera inside Chinese factories to investigate the making of knock-off jerseys that could soon be sold under the guise of officially licensed apparel.
FAKING IT will be available for streaming on CTV and TSN Digital platforms after each of the series’ three parts makes its debut. Once it airs, fans can visit TSN.ca and W5.CTVNews.ca to watch the series in its entirety, alongside a slate of bonus clips.
FAKING IT appears in every episode of SPORTSCENTRE from Feb. 5-7, with each part premiering in the 6 p.m. ET edition. The complete, original W5 documentary airs on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. ET on CTV.
The broadcast schedule is as follows:
- Part One: The Name Game – Thursday, Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. ET on TSN’s SPORTSCENTRE
- Part Two: Tickets to Nowhere – Friday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. ET on TSN’s SPORTSCENTRE
- Part Three: Jersey Ploys – Saturday, Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. ET on TSN’s SPORTSCENTRE
- FAKING IT – Saturday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. ET on CTV’s W5
