Another sign that, clearly, the world is coming to an end.

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	Asides, Personalities, The One	Posted at 8:47 pm (22 Aug 2006)

CBC Television’s version of The One: Making of a Music Star will not air in the fall of 2006. A U.S. version of the reality series, hosted by CBC host George Stroumboulopoulos and aired simultaneously on CBC and ABC, was cancelled July 28. The Canadian version of the reality show is “still under development,” according to CBC spokesman Jeff Keay.[more]

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	Asides, The One	Posted at 11:27 am (16 Aug 2006)

The Hour host George Stroumboulopoulos is on his way back from Los Angeles, after his short stint as host of ABC’s The One. The Toronto Star profiled his love of motorcycles this weekend:

“When I’m on the bike, I don’t feel like I’m in my world. You’re forced to think differently on the bike because you always have to be aware — you can’t slip into your own headspace in the same way that you can in a car.
     ”There’s so much mental energy that goes into safe riding, and at the same time just being aware of everything going on around you, that at the end of the day you’re just so tired — and it’s a good tired. I just want to be in every town that I’m in. I want to be in it.”

UPDATE: The National Post gets in on the story too.

Toronto Star

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	Personalities, The One	Posted at 10:01 pm (12 Aug 2006)

“There’s a lot of pot stirring going on in the Canadian media these days – mega mergers and takeovers, and changing priorities at the CBC. It all makes me very nervous.” — Knowlton Nash

From the Barrie Examiner today comes an editorial piece by former CBC news anchor Knowlton Nash:

As an unabashed admirer of the concept of public broadcasting, signals coming out of the CBC TV Executive suite these days scare the living daylights out of me. A fundamental policy deviation seems to be emerging that suggests a lower priority for things like documentaries, news and current affairs. Bumping The National for an American singing contest is an example. In itself, it was a short-lived and relatively minor move, but it’s a worrisome indicator of a new CBC mindset that is obsessed with audience size and commercial potential rather than public service.
     ”We’re looking at it as a long term strategy,” says one senior CBC TV executive. “It’s always an unfortunate situation when you have a newscast on at 10 at night; that does make it vulnerable to scheduling issues.”
     But journalism is the sustaining cornerstone of a public broadcaster. Weaken that by lusting for audience tonnage and commercial appeal, and the CBC becomes more like the private TV channels. That ill serves the viewers for, among other things, it inevitably means Canadians will get less probing journalism and subjugate what there is to the pressing needs of pop programming as happened with the bumped National. It also ominously blurs the distinctions between private and public broadcasting.

More

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	CBC Television, News & Journalism, Our Mandate, The One	Posted at 1:40 pm (10 Aug 2006)

Today’s Globe and Mail brings yet another article about the cancellation of The One. What exactly is the tipping point for “gloating” — is it five columns? Six?

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	Asides, The One	Posted at 10:53 am (05 Aug 2006)

ABC’s cancellation of The One has forced schedule changes for CBC Television. Hustle, which had served as the Wednesday lead-in to The One, moves to Tuesday nights. Wednesdays will be home to feature films like Mission Impossible and Under the Tuscan Sun.

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	Asides, CBC Television, Programming, The One	Posted at 8:30 am (28 Jul 2006)

ABC has cancelled The One: Making of a Music Star after dismal ratings. The show’s web site now reads: “There are no plans for additional episodes. Thanks to all who participated in and supported The One!”
     Personally, I didn’t think the show itself was all that bad. George Stroumboulopoulos did a great job hosting, and the show concept itself has proven itself as eyeball-worthy around the world. (Star Académie — which is basically a French version of The One — draws as much as half of the province’s entire population.)
     The problem is that the reality/competition show field is already way too busy. ABC simply got in too late. Were it to be among only a few competitors and it probably would have been a huge hit. But it tried to struggle for eyeballs in a space already crowded with Canadian Idol, Rock Star: Supernova, America’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance, and Big Brother — all with their own characters and plotlines.
     Face it, even the most diehard reality-show fans have to, after a while, pick and choose which shows they are going to invest time into. For me (sadly), it’s Big Brother — a show where 14 people are locked in a house and vote each other out. But the thing is: I have a job and a life. I can’t keep up with a whole new set of contestants.
     Call it Reality Overload.
     A CBC official says plans for the Canadian version of The One are still moving forward which I think is a good thing. But timing will be critical. Let’s hope it doesn’t launch when there aren’t 492 other competition/reality shows on.

From the blogs:

• The Stroumboulopouli:”Man! Give a show time to build a following. ABC is a jerk! It took the CBC for a ride on this one! Bad move ABC!”

• Torontoist: “Sorry George, we want to see you succeed, but love you too much to have America take you from our clutches.”
• Fine Young Journalist: “So who gets to walk the plank in the CBC management hierarchy? My money’s on ‘nobody.’ And if history is anything to go by, they’ll probably do the Canadian version in the fall as scheduled.”
• Antonia Zerbisias: “Still no management splat on the CBC atrium floor.”
• Mister Bryans: “Lets just ignore Canadian Idol and go for something with quality.”

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	The One	Posted at 9:38 pm (27 Jul 2006)

George Stroumboulopoulos has sent members of his Myspace page a short update on his thoughts about The One:

I know that there’s a small, passionate group of people who are surprised to see me do this show, and that’s cool… I get it…
     That being said, I’ve gotten a kick out of the way some of the Canadian media has reacted to me taking out my nose ring… the funny part is, they’re the same people who were freaking when I went to CBC with a nose ring in the first place. You’d think that Justin Timberlake exposed my breast on TV during a halftime show… I hope I’m never at a point where my jewellery defines me…
     As for The One (The show)… the contestants can really sing the roof off the place, I’ve been blown away by some of the voices and musical ability.. I know that there were some major audio problems on TV, they seemed to have worked them out now. The house that they are living in (The Academy) is killer… And the experts (Andre Harrell, Kara Dioguardi & Mark Hudson) have been awesome to watch…. They are all so passionate about music that everyday we just shoot the shit about the industry, the songs, the artists and everything in between…
     I can’t wait to ride the bike back to Canada to launch season three of The Hour.

The Stroumboulopouli

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	Personalities, The One	Posted at 9:18 am (25 Jul 2006)

So I just watched the east-coast feed of The One, the American singing reality show which tapped George Stroumboulopoulos to be its host. I have two immediate thoughts:

• These contestants can not sing. Can. Not. Sing.
   
• Uh, what’s with the dude with the blue moustache, turquoise soul patch, and purple beard? I guess the casting agency was out of cranky Brit judges so they sent the next wackiest guy they had in line?

Anyway, Stroumboulopoulos seemed like a natural on set — even bold enough to cut off the judges (Favourite Strombo line: "Okay! We get it, we get it, we get it, we get it!") . In the show message boards, he was pretty much ignored, though, except for one chatter who liked him.

    ABC, on the other hand, managed to screw up the critical opening minutes of the live show with major production glitches like mics shutting off, the video feed dropping right out, and levels between singers in the opening song varying wildly. It looked like a show that had been rushed into production without much opportunity for rehearsal. The crew seemed to get it together in the last half.

    True to its promised strategy, CBC Television heavily promoted itself and Newsworld during the commercial breaks, especially its prime-time movie lineup. It sent an occasional crawl across the bottom of the screen reminding viewers that The National was still coming. Really, it was. (It did.)

    I was especially looking forward to the Big Brother show nature of having the contestants living together. But with the singers’ introductions and songs, there wasn’t much room for the antics of "The One Academy" (the set/house the contestants live in) except for watching one contestant get in trouble for sleeping in and two contestants flirt with each other. Another showmance. {yawn}  (Although, it seemed as if the girl had been caught by surprise watching her flirtatious antics on screen — she’s got a boyfriend at home. Uh oh…)

    Speaking of invented storylines, it seems the show producers are have goaded the female judge into flirting with one contestant, with lines like "You’re fooling around" and "Don’t be hot for teacher" and "You can be sexy." {sigh}

    I’ll keep watching, but I’m glad I’ve got a PVR, ’cause if I had to decide between this show and finding out if Diane or Nakomis would be evicted (go Nakomis!)… well, sorry Strombo. You did a great job; I just don’t have the time to learn a whole new set of reality-show characters.

    Anyway, that’s just my opinion. What did you think?

Blogosphere/Media Reaction So Far:

• The Stroumboulolouli: "One things for sure, its going to be interesting to tune into US morning shows tomorrow and see how many hosts actually pronounce his name right." (True dat.)
• Toronto Sun: "Stroumboulopoulos? He did OK. A little wooden off the top, but he became visibly more relaxed in the show’s second hour, demonstrating a little more of that casual cool for which he was presumably hired. More of the Strombo we know and love, or love to not love."
• Off On A Tangent: "One thing that bothered me was that you couldn’t hear the contestants singing. Over on Rockstar, you can clearly hear those contestants ROCK!"
• Teamakers: "Good lord, those kids cannot sing. They dance like zombies. And not the Thriller kind of zombies. Despite this, I think the show will do well. The point seems to be that they will teach these kids to be rock stars, and it’s still early days yet."
• The Tyee: "As the contestants live together 24 hours a day, we get to see all the tensions arise on camera in between ghastly — all ghastly — performances. We see a budding (clearly choreographed) romance between two guitar players: Aubrey, a rock chick with a boyfriend and Nick, a moptoped axeman who somehow makes John Mayer seem threatening and more likeable."

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	The One	Posted at 8:09 pm (18 Jul 2006)

From cbc.ca:

CBC-TV’s pierced, hipster talk-show host has been tabbed to helm an American singing series. The black-shirted George Stroumboulopoulos will host the U.S. version of The One: Making a Music Star, in which 11 young musicians compete for a chance at a recording contract, CBC spokeswoman Danielle Fielder said Monday.
     Starting July 18, Canadian viewers can catch the former MuchMusic VJ in the eight-week series on the U.S. ABC network and simulcast on CBC-TV.
     No host has been announced yet for the Canadian version of the show, already a hit in 23 other countries, said Fielder.

Full article: “Canada’s Stroumboulopoulos to helm U.S. reality-T.V. singing contest”

I spotted this first on one of George’s fan blogs

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	Personalities, The One	Posted at 11:59 am (10 Jul 2006)