Style over substance.
If you find yourself frustrated over the massive changes in Hockey Night in Canada, this is likely your main critique.
The new studio in Studio 41 in the CBC building in Toronto is quite nice. How Rogers uses the new studio is a metaphor for the reaction to the changes.
The fancy features don't make Nick Kypreos or Damien Cox or Doug MacLean any more interesting or relevant. Glenn Healy, Elliotte Friedman, and P.J. Stock are just as interesting and relevant, maybe more so because they don't have to wear ties.
The truth lies somewhere in the middle of where CBC was and where Rogers wants to take Hockey Night in Canada.
Commercialism
"There is a lot of bad ism's floating around this world and one of the worst is commercialism. Make a buck, make a buck." Alvin Greenman — "Miracle on 34th Street"
Cutting "Coach's Corner" from 7 to 5 minutes. Running ads on the screen in the middle of action. A sponsored scoreboard to mention during the game. The constant need to promote Rogers products, whether natural or not.
Even the casual fan knows that Rogers spent $5.2 billion for 12 years, and the company has to make back its money. Those who watch Toronto Blue Jays baseball knows the constant need for Rogers to say how great it is. And that carries over to the NHL telecasts.
The CBC didn't take as much advantage of this when the network dominated the hockey coverage. Quite frankly, the charm of that approach is why some favor the CBC philosophy.
If TSN had acquired the rights, there would have been more commercialism, but the transition would have been much more smooth. Rogers is rather clumsy about commercialism, especially with the huge desire to talk into the mirror about how awesome the company is.
The extra mentions for Rogers GameCentre Live don't seem so bad when you get a chance to see the Ref cam or the Sky cam. The views are remarkable; perhaps like watching a new video on the Internet, you have to sit through a commercial first.
Community
CBC emphasized community. Rogers — on Wednesdays and Saturdays — isn't as concerned about community. Yes Rogers ran the segment where the kids hockey team takes us through the night's games. The segment didn't run in the beginning, they only covered the early games, the shot was edited and not in one take, and George Stroumboulopoulos didn't tie in the team like Ron MacLean would.
Rogers did run the segment, but did Rogers make the segment better? By all objective points, the answer is no. Rogers would have received a lot of grief if it blew off the idea. So Rogers did the segment, but in a way where a distracted 11-year-old sets a table for dinner and not everyone gets a spoon.
The debut of "Hometown Hockey" shows that Rogers can get the idea of community. The segments in the studio were more comfortable, and the Hometown Hockey concept extended to the interviews with David Amber and the intermissions.
Rogers can't approach community like many approach church: be holy on Sundays but not the rest of the week.
CBC
We have been pro-CBC on this blog, but the hockey coverage is a tie-in to showcasing Canada to an audience that is Canada-friendly.
CBC viewers still get 6½ hours of hockey programming per week, down from 9 hours. This doesn't include the special NHL telecasts outside the Saturday block that have disappeared. "After Hours" has disappeared from the schedule, a great Canadian showcase. That programming runs on the CBC, but isn't produced with the CBC and Canada in mind.
The CBC negotiators did as poor a job as imaginable. The concept of a private broadcaster controlling programming on a public network is unconscionable. The Globe and Mail ran a story on how the CBC was clueless about the state of hockey programming and sports programming, and was way too cocky. CBC turned down a chance to retain control. The network went from picking the first 2 rounds in the playoffs to having no say in what games the CBC will show.
The CBC gets no revenue from hockey, but gets to run promos for shows. Promoting the network shows is important to calling attention to Canadian shows run on the CBC. The vast majority of Canadian-produced TV runs on the CBC. The hockey numbers might still be there, but if the production is perceived as being inferior, fewer people will watch the CBC, and everyone loses in that scenario.
CBC ran Hockey Night in Canada like a public broadcaster should. There were flaws in that process, but produced an overall wonderful program. Rogers approaches Hockey Night in Canada like an awkward private broadcaster.
Canada (and George Stroumboulopoulos) lives here
George Stroumboulopoulos was a CBC institution, but now is the face of Rogers.
George Stroumboulopoulos will get better in his new role, but the learning curve is more on us than him. Stroumboulopoulos replaces Ron MacLean but he isn't trying to do what MacLean did.
Stroumboulopoulos is a hockey fan but he isn't there to talk hockey. On the panel, Stroumboulopoulos wants to drive conversations but not really add to them.
Stroumboulopoulos does a lot better in the red chairs. His banter with Glenn Healy on the Sunday night game was more on what he should do.
Saturday night, Stroumboulopoulos interviewed Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mark Messier. Including the prime minister was a nice touch but there could have been more to the interview. Getting Harper to open up can't be an easy task for anyone, even Strombo.
The Messier interview was in lieu of intermission analysis and was more a victim of bad scheduling. But this is the future of Stroumboulopoulos' role at Hockey Night in Canada.
Stroumboulopoulos needs to add more of what the CBC was in the new Rogers Hockey Night in Canada. Strombo still has ties to CBC Radio.
Ron MacLean will do what he can on Sundays with Hometown Hockey to bring what the CBC was to NHL coverage in Canada. The former CBC people will do what they can; Scott Oake on Twitter pointed out that he has passed on the reaction to the loss of "After Hours" to his bosses at Sportsnet.
CBC Hockey Night in Canada appealed to those who like hockey. Rogers Hockey Night in Canada is trying to appeal to those who don't like hockey. The program needs viewers from both segments.
But George Stroumboulopoulos is the new face of Hockey Night in Canada. And that face has to be more about Canada and community.
The new Rogers version of HNIC is going to take some getting used to for sure. I don't mind Don Cherry's air time getting cut back as his routine has become pretty stale over the years often touching on the same topics over and over lacking fresh insight. And I still see George Stroumboulopoulos as being a mainstream entertainment interviewer personality rather than a hockey guy. But I suppose someone may have said the same thing about Ron MacLean being a weather presenter when he joined HNIC back in the day.
The opening intro to HNIC (minus the awful new theme music) was good on Saturday. While the CBC's music montages were well done, it's nice to have a little variety rather than the same old every week. Having the legendary Dick Irvin read one of Stephen Brunt's essays about Saturday night hockey in Canada to open the telecast hearing some of the audio of memorable moments in HNIC history was well done I thought (link below to Saturday's opening).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvGa5xGqK0k
Posted by: KWH84 | October 14, 2014 at 04:01 PM
Good points. Perhaps the best way to judge a lot of these elements is waiting a few weeks to see where Rogers takes the show.
The 7-game first Saturday isn't what we will see down the road. The montage was cool, but we aren't getting those every week. Strombo will be different from MacLean, but the show needs a bit of both.
Posted by: Chad | October 14, 2014 at 04:11 PM