It takes something big to take on Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on their own turf. I can’t say for sure what they are, but I think George Stroumboulopoulos got tagged in his.The Hour returned to CBC this week after a summer hiatus and a blink-and-you-missed-it run at reality TV in the U.S. for George. But The One did not stick to Strombo who is back not only as the lead primetime show on Newsworld, but as the 11 p.m. show on the main network. That’s one tough slot when you are targeting young news junkies, but a good move for CBC. They are already running the show once, so rebroadcasting it instead of a shortened version of The National makes sense and shows great faith in Strombo’s ability to pick up some younger viewers for the Mother Corp.
It’s the second season and not much has changed – which is just fine with me. He still talks, as the segment says, a mile a minute, jumping from North Korea to hockey stars and inane minutia of celebrity culture. What has changed is the website, which still has a few glitches, is a vast improvement from the clips-only version from last year. The previous night’s show streams on the site, so you non-Canadian readers can see what I’m talking about.
So can he take on Stewart? All I know is I don’t have to make the choice – I have a PVR. (And those of you landing here looking for studio audience tickets, go here instead.)
I'd watch George over Jon anyday, but that's partly because I think he's cuter, and I'm just more familiar with George having brown up watching him.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that Jon Stewart's a little overrated
George is this generation's Ralph. As in Benmergui.
ReplyDeleteHe can fail over and over again and the CBC will continue to find him something to do.
I've heard The Hour is a ratings disaster on the main network with just 52000 viewers caring enough to watch this sugar rushing ADD presenter talk down to them.
Jon Stewart overrated!! Stroumboulopoulos compared to Benmergui!!! Wow, I sure hit a harsh (if small) spot.
ReplyDeleteI am watching The Daily Show first, but I'm still PVRing The Hour. Do those count in the ratings? And where'd you see those numbers Aidan? I looked everywhere and couldn't find them.
What I wonder is what the ratings of the The National repeat used to be? Is The Hour doing better? If so, than it is succeeding. Ratings are a tough slog for the CBC. I just read that Global's 5:30 news gets 1.2 million viewers, while the CBC's 6:30 version only pulls in 250,000. How sad.
I got those numbers from another source quoting the Toronto Star.
ReplyDeleteSecond hand information to be true, But I'm tracking down a primary resource and will report back :-)