Christine Blanchette: Award-Winning Television Host, Producer & Fitness Media Creator

Christine Blanchette is a two-time award-winning host and producer with Zondra TV Network, where she livestreams programming on Roku, Amazon, and Apple TV. She is the creator, host, and producer of Run With It, a television series focused on running, fitness, and health that airs daily on ZondraTV.

In 2013, Blanchette created Run With It, Canada’s only television program dedicated specifically to running, fitness and health. The series originally aired on Novus TELUS Television and is also available through the TELUS Optik TV VOD channel.

Throughout her career, Blanchette has interviewed a diverse range of guests, including amateur and professional athletes, coaches, managers, musicians, celebrities and actors, with a consistent focus on fitness, health and active living. Through Run With It, she encourages Canadians of all ages to engage in physical activity while promoting the importance of physical literacy and lifelong wellness.

Blanchette also created The Closing Act, a music and entertainment program profiling musicians, entertainers and CEOs within the industry. Her interview subjects have included international recording artists and entertainment figures such as Bif Naked, David Clayton-Thomas and Tom Jackson.

In 2013, you launched Run With It as Canada's only television series focused on running, fitness, and health. What was the decision or the moment that made you commit to building your own show rather than working within someone else's, and what did you risk to do it?

In 2013,  I launched Run With It, a fitness and health TV series on cable television. The pilot was created because of my passion for running and health. Hosting and producing my own program with a strong team behind me had given me the freedom to create my own content without being part of a network. I recognized that runners and fitness enthusiasts lacked a space or platform to share fitness stories, expert advice, and community events. Producing an independent program on Novus TV/Telus Optik TV was an opportunity to have guests as well, from Olympic athletes to wellness professionals. The monthly program covers running, physical training, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle tips.

Creating my own brand led to financial instability and many unpaid hours.  My time spent working on each monthly episode ranged from 20 to 25 hours. The time commitment was a challenge for booking guests and venues, and for navigating sometimes conflicting production schedules.  Relying on sponsors to fund the program was sometimes unreliable, and we had to seek out grants and funding, which didn't always come through.

You've grown Run With It across Novus TELUS, TELUS Optik, and now Zondra TV on Roku, Amazon, and Apple TV. What was the hardest call you had to make to keep an independent show alive and growing over more than a decade?

The Run With It series has been on cable since 2013, and the hardest part to learn was that I needed to air the program on live television because of viewership numbers and the shift from traditional media to digital.  I was wondering at the time where I could air my content or what the production and distribution would be like. It was giving up the familiarity of reliable local cable time slots for the unknown. Without a team, it would have been impossible to continue the programming.

I am grateful to the Zondra TV network, where Run With It also airs on Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon. It also airs on specific dates and times, and it still airs on NOVUS cable TV. Run With It has grown in viewership and engagement due to my program's longevity and its airtime on traditional media and livestreaming TV.

You expanded beyond fitness into music and entertainment with The Closing Act. What told you it was time to build a second property, and what did you learn from Run With It that shaped how you did it?

The second program, The Closing Act, in music and entertainment, was created in 2015 because of my passion for music and entertainment. The idea was developed through interviews with musicians on Run With It who follow a healthy lifestyle.  I called it Fitness Entertainment!

There was a need for a platform to showcase entertainers and promote their music and events. Hosting and producing Run With It had already given me a production module to follow, from coordination and guest booking to workflow and distribution. Both are half-hour shows and air on Zondra TV.

Independent media is a difficult business to sustain. Looking back, what is the one decision you're proudest of, and what would you tell another woman trying to build a media brand from the ground up?

My passion for running helped me create my own program, Run With It. Building a media brand from scratch was an accomplishment that began as a running show and grew into fitness entertainment. The show is about inspiring others to take up exercise, promote physical literacy, and more! If you follow your passion as I did, you can create a program/podcast.

For any woman who would like to create a program, it starts with an idea, authentic content you want to share, choosing a platform, and being patient with your progress. Have a supportive team who will believe in your project and keep up with industry changes and strategies as technology evolves.