U8TV: The Lofters

U8TV: The Lofters was a Canadian reality television series, which aired on the Life Network and online on the internet television channel U8TV.com, in 2001 and 2002. The show followed the lives of eight Canadians in their 20s who lived together in a Toronto loft for a one-year period, while at the same time producing and hosting their own television programs for Life Network or other cable TV networks, and for the website U8TV.com.

The loft, located in Toronto's Entertainment District near the intersection of Peter and Richmond streets, had 21 cameras filming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in all rooms of the house including the bathrooms, although the bathroom camera was only broadcast if Lofters went in there to talk. The full live stream could be viewed at U8TV.com, while Life Network broadcast a nightly episode to recap the day's highlights.

The show was not only a fly-on-the-wall-style reality show like MTV's The Real World, but was also a nightly series of talk shows and documentaries that were created and hosted by the cast members. The online shows or TV shows produced by the Lofters included Fuel, So Gay TV, Male Box, Spin the Bottle, Love Shack, Money Shot, U8 on Film and House Party. The shows had regular weekly time slots and were hosted regularly by one or two lofters, and usually centred on themes of interest to young people.

The program was announced in fall 2000, with over 700 people showing up for scheduled auditions that fall. It premiered in January 2001.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved a licence for a U8TV Category 2 digital television channel in 2000, but the channel was never launched.

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