Stagnant Strombo

I know what you’re thinking, George.

You think that come October you can waltz back into the studio and bebop your way through another season of The Hour. Such an easy formula by now that you could practically do it blindfolded.

(just a figure of speech, George, because of course if you were blindfolded you couldn’t read the teleprompter  and so wouldn’t know what to say).

But both you and that show have come to a dead end.

What began as a great idea, with lots of promise and hope, has become a production and viewer experience that’s as flat as the new screens it’s viewed on.

It goes nowhere, as does your numbers.

And even worse, the demographic you were supposed to attract has never materialized.

Of course your friend Ms. Layfield will tell you that it’s all good.

So what if you’re not so smart, that just means you’re explaining the news to dumb people.

So what if your ratings are dismal, that just means it’s doing great considering the low production costs and that there’ll be no cuts at The Hour.

So the show is boring and pointless. Hey, the less controversy the better is the motto of the CBC.

You’ve assimilated perfectly, and compromised completely.

We thought you could do better, George.

We thought you would be different.

We gave you the benefit of the doubt, and you’ve had years now to show us what you’re made of.

But you’re just another guy with nothing going on, who thinks it’s all about being recognized in public.

Your version of broadcasting sucks, and only a true friend, like me, will tell you.

Boyfriend.

18 Comments

  • Anon says:

    Allan, you obviously have no idea how much productions cost .

  • Anonymous says:

    I actually have a good direct Manager and deal with a couple of good Managers at more senior levels.

    For their own safety, I’m not going to “out” them. I think their supportive behaviour is strictly underground and That Which Is Never Mentioned.

  • Allan says:

    I do indeed find it funny that someone would be so silly as to pretend that a million dollars was cut from The Hour’s budget.
    To place that kind of value on The Hour is really very amusing. Kind of wish I had thought of it for a post.

  • Rolloff deBunk says:

    Well here is a perfect example of folks in management at CBC TV making decisions about a medium they don’t understand and who their demographic is. Unfortunately it isn’t just tv that suffers from management incompetence. The plain truth is talented people don’t have the stomach for fighting and that’s what management is all about. Fighting to schedule, fighting to solve personnel conflicts, fighting budgets and on…. The creative types don’t have input because the managers feel because they have to shovel excrement daily they should be allowed to drive. Inevitably it all goes into the ditch. A wise manager doesn’t try to grab the wheel – anybody know one? Just one I’d love to hear about it!

  • Frank says:

    You won’t have to worry about the Hour, the National or any CBC show one year form now. That’s when cable subscribers get to pick channels they want. Bye Bye George. Bye bye Peter. Bye bye CBC.

  • KT says:

    Spot on. He’s doing a show that’s hired a slew of comedy writers, and George isn’t funny, and has an inability to deliver funny stuff written for him. Funny gets in the way of playing cool. He’s made a great living playing the brooding hipster with an opinion. Does any picture exist in the litany of photos pumped out by CBC that shows him smiling, or not with his chin tucked down eyes smoldering? And the aging thing…is he fighting age? His hair is starting to look like a piece. As a woman, I’m embarrassed for other women who fawn over this pseudo intellectualism.

  • Anonymous says:

    Can Allan leave poor George alone ? God, you went from blogspot to .com but really, nothing has changed.

  • Anonymous says:

    I want my news given to me by Brian Stewart. Not “The Other Guy”.

    YKWYR

  • Allan says:

    VERY funny

    • Anonymous says:

      you find it very funny that people have lost their jobs?

      • Anonymous says:

        This site always thinks it’s funny when people lose their jobs.

        • Fake Ouimet says:

          I don’™t think that’™s accurate. We just don’™t give layoffs wall-to-wall coverage as though it were 9/11 or the ice storm.

      • Allan says:

        It’s the numbers that are funny.
        How much do you think it costs for each of the 175 shows that are created?
        You’re claiming that $6,000 has been cut from each episode.

  • Anon says:

    The Hour had $ 1,000,000 cut from it’s budget resulting in a lot of cuts to crew and staff

  • Amused says:

    I never could stomach this show. Nothing but vacuous celebrities shilling their latest book. Heard it on “Q”. Strombo is cute, and a smart fella. But I want my news and information delivered by a middle-aged male/female who’s been around and experienced the ups and downs of life. Some hip 30-something dude slouching in his chair just doesn’t ring true. Sorry George, I like you…but this show sucks and it ain’t your milieu.

  • Anonymous says:

    no cuts at the hour? wrong again, tea makers. way wrong.

  • Anonymous says:

    Alright people in TV land, I didn’t want to do this but now I have to. Its time for a lecture, call it a learning session in sociology and psychology 101. The lack of this basic knowledge is one of the biggest reasons for why people are turning off their tvs and ‘eating the young’. The question surrounding George and the hour, is what happens when sex no longer sells? The cbc for all intense purposes bought an icon, they took George from Much, and holy mery mother of god, that man could have sold sex to a group of devout nuns. Girls followed him home, screamed when he came out of the building and there was not a single girl who would not have sold their soul to the devil for a piece of him…it was George mania. and this is what the cbc bought.
    The problem is that ‘substance’ is learned and George never needed substance because he was perfectly perfect and this is not a bad place to be coming from. One big problem became his ‘people’ and his target demo. They put a guy in this 30s who dressed and acted like he was 17, with dizzy graphics and a confused show from the start. He talked about everything from free trade to vibrators. This turned the young off fast, as it reinforced the already dominant social stereotype that the young either have ADD or are stupid.
    This now brings us to the second demo…the 30 somethings, his age group. This is where I believe the most harm was done, with the introduction of ‘hi, I’m your boyfriend George’. The problem with this is two-fold. First, it cut the 30 something demo in half, one half looking for substance, which fell flat and the other half not caring what came out of his mouth as long as they could keep the image of his head hitting the headboard. Not something a man wants, trust me, it gets really old.
    The second problem was that this new saying brought in an entirely unexpected demo. For the sake of this argument lets call them the IQ impaired (you know the type, they hang in large groups, giggling as they watch the smoke come out of each others ears as they collectively ponder the correct spelling of really big words like…remember). This has become very evident if you read anything on his blog, the hours blog or the viewers comments on his show. I don’t think im being unreasonable when I say that the vast majority of Canadians don’t care why his arms appear to be so much smoother on tv. This also type cast him, you cannot put a suit and tie on the guy and sit him in front of the 6’oclock news, in 5 mins he would be eaten alive.
    This brings us to the 40+ somethings, who either don’t know who he is, or don’t care, or have been turned off. Thus Georges people have decided to promote him constantly, and badly. Why exactly is he hosting a comedy fest when even George knows he’s not funny, nor should he be, hes not a comedian. Another mistake was the one million acts of green. I read an article about that once and the comments under the article were vicious but based in reality. Who thought it was a good idea to make the poster boy for the environment a guy who owns half a dozen vehicles and wears nothing but leather? The result, was Strombo burn-out.
    If George is important to the cbc, then you need to ask the question…what do you do with him when sex no longer sells and he is aging fast and poorly. So people in TV land, sit down and brain storm, bur remember to crack the window, as there will be smoke.

  • Anonymous says:

    ohhhhkay — so this is the part where the weird unstable fan goes batshit insane and turns against the object of his affection? Is a description of the “hobbling scene” next?

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