Canadian Talk Show Host Dini Petty Returning To TV Aged 80 With ‘Trailblazing Talks'
EXCLUSIVE: Legendary Canadian talk show host and broadcaster Dini Petty is returning to network TV aged 80.
She will host the one-hour special Trailblazing Talks on Canadian channel The News Forum this summer, with production completed in Toronto.
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In the show, Petty will have candid conversations with Canadian Senator, former rower and three-time Olympian gold-medalist Marnie McBean, and actor, producer and Reelworld Screen Institute founder and Executive Director Tonya Williams.
She will also share highlights of memorable moments from her original interviews with both guests, who appeared on The Dini Petty Show, the Canadian daytime talk show that ran from 1989 to 1999.
Petty is one of Canada's most recognizable broadcasters and radio hosts, known for her trademark pink jumpsuits. While working for Canadian radio station CKEY, she became the first female traffic reporter to pilot her own helicopter, clocking 5,000 hours of flight.
She went on to be co-anchor of CityTV's newscast CityPulse News at 6 before establishing herself as a major daytime talk show host on the ratings-winning CityLine before moving to CTFO (part of CTV) for The Dini Petty Show. She later fronted a radio show and returned to guest-host episodes of CityLine, which remains on air.
In total, her journalism won her her six CanPro Awards for Television Excellence and the prestigious NATPE International Iris Award. She also landed four Gemini nominations and took home the Canadian of Distinction Award.
In recent years, she has performed a one-woman play, A Broad View, about her own life. She also appeared in Canadian short film Boundless, whose creator, Kate Campbell, is showrunner of Trailblazing Talks.
'My first television appearance was at age 12. It was not a good beginning, and I swore I'd never go into the business, but fate had other plans,' said Petty. 'Now, 68 years later, at age 80, I'm back.'
Campbell is the creator and showrunner of Trailblazing Talks. The actor, vocalist and producer has appeared on screen in Oscar-nominated feature Gone Girl and played a prosecutor in the fourth season of CBS series in the Dark. Other roles have come in The Murdoch Mysteries, April Mullen's Badsville and Bell Fibe TV series BIKE. She is currently attached to direct two films, women-driven psychological thriller Satisfaction and Green Mountain State, which was a finalist in the 2022 Sundance Writer's Lab.
Campbell executive produces alongside the former VP and General Manager of Discovery Channel Canada, Ken MacDonald, who is known for commissioning a suite of successful Canadian shows such as Highway Thru Hell, Heavy Rescue 401, Canada's Worst Driver, Coldwater Cowboys and Frontier.
Petty and Marina Cordoni of Marina Cordoni Entertainment are also exec producers on Trailblazing Talks. Former broadcaster and CRTC commissioner Martha Wilson is a consulting producer.
'The time is now for a new kind of conversation, one that honors the women who've shaped our world,' said Campbell. 'I created this one-hour special to celebrate broadcast icon Dini Petty's powerful return to television at 80, alongside two remarkable trailblazers from her past.''Dini Petty is truly a force of nature,' added MacDonald. 'It's such a joy to see her back in front of the cameras where she rightfully belongs. We are honored that she has chosen to step back into the spotlight to host this exciting new program.'
The News Forum is a privately-owned Canadian national network focused on integrity, balance, inclusion of voices and promotion of democracy – all of which have become increasingly important to the country in 2025 following Donald Trump's threats to turn Canada into the 51st state. During his successful election campaign, Liberal leader Mark Carney's pledged to further fund public broadcaster the CBC to protect news journalism.
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