From a media release:
Comedian Norm Macdonald will host the Academy’s 2016 Canadian Screen Awards, live on CBC prime time on Sunday March 13, 2016, it was announced today by Helga Stephenson, CEO, Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
“Comedian Norm Macdonald has done brilliant stand-up comedy everywhere and on every show from Saturday Night Live to Just for Laughs, so we know how lucky we are to have him host our 2016 Canadian Screen Awards,†says Stephenson.
Norm Macdonald is perhaps best known for his five seasons as a cast member on Saturday Night Live (SNL). For three years Macdonald anchored Weekend Update, SNL’s longest running recurring sketch. Macdonald also wrote for the popular ABC sitcom Roseanne and starred in The Norm Show.
For the first time, the Canadian Screen Awards will be broadcast LIVE on CBC in the Eastern Time Zone, and live-to-tape across the country. The 2016 CSAs will return to the prestigious Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, Ontario.
So proud that Norm is currently performing the voice of The Hole, for the sketch comedy show Sunnyside, which is on City TV Sunday nights at 8, 7 Central time.
I have always liked Norm, but it seems a bit odd to not choose a Canadian for the Canadian Screen Awards right? Unless this is supposed to display the reality of the Canadian film and television industry, which offers up Canadian identity for American star power. In that case it makes sense.
Norm Macdonald is Canadian. Andrea Martin, who hosted the CSA’s last year, isn’t.
It’s interesting that many think that Andrea Martin is Canadian and Norm Macdonald is not. The reason; she works in Canada and can be seen doing Canadian talk shows etc. Norm certainly doesn’t celebrate his nationality and only came back to work in Canada (a voice that could have been recorded from his sofa in LA) when his career dried up in the US. It seems all these Canadian born people only come back to their home and native land when they can’t get work in their adopted country. Andrea Martin is more “Canadian” than many of these Canadian born people.
Macdonald is one of those people where the level of his celebrity is secondary to his personality – in Macdonald’s case, awkward and off-putting. He’s not as big a celebrity as Cory Monteith and Russell Peters were when they hosted the Geminis, but Macdonald has a steady enough career in the US and Canada. The main issue is getting more viewers to accept the Canadian Screen Awards, as the broadcast gala has mediocre ratings.