Tag Archives: Canada AM

Featured, Your Morning

Comments and queries for the week of August 26

4 Comments

Your Morning not a hit with fans

Watched the first show of CTV’s Your Morning for maybe 20 minutes and will not be back. Huge disappointment! I agree with previous comments re: The View and The Social ( two other very uninteresting shows). Also very disappointed that both CTV channels broadcasted the same content. I envision a large boardroom with some hired (big bucks) consultant presenting this wild idea to members who have no clue of their audience. You drank the Kool-Aid! Terrible show! Gather any remaining senses and bring back Bev, Marci, Anwar, Todd and Michael—at least they know how to connect with an audience and present information worth knowing. —CJ

This new show is such a letdown. Where is the actual news? Having to see and listen to Ben, and his harem of chatty ladies, is extremely annoying first thing in the morning. They seem to be speaking over one another in a quest to get the most attention. I have to admit that I was happy to say goodbye to Jeff and good riddance to his ridiculous videos, but this new team is too much! Surely, you can do much better CTV! —From Ottawa

Terrible! Used to watch every morning and loved it. I can’t stand the new version. Bring the old format back and the former hosts! Unless they change the format I will watch another channel/competitor! —Pat

Agree there no class on this show. Can’t stand The Social and this is what this is. If you only appeal to the young you will lose millions. The young watch the Internet for news, not TV. The Social is immature and yappy and so is this. Weather girl trying to compete with other noisy people. Not to criticize, but this generation has no intelligence emotionally, no sophistication and can’t pull off charm. And you can’t fake charm. —Sharon

Please cancel this new morning show! It is unbearable. I gave it a third chance! Couldn’t do it. Thirty minutes later and I switched channels again! It is terrible. Please bring back the Canada AM we all knew and loved in the mornings! Ben and the gals have to go! —F&B

I watched Canada AM every morning since the early 80’s. Sorry, not a fan of the new show. I also don’t like the change to the news channel. The whole point of a news channel is to watch the news, not some poor version of The Social. —April

I truly don’t understand the mindset of creating Your Morning! Our kids are thirtysomethings and watch Breakfast Television. One tuned in and found it “noisy” due to hyper-like chatter. We agree. If an updated format was needed, why not update Canada AM? It seemed a well-oiled machine, relaxed, great hosts! The Social is successful—why duplicate it? What is CTV trying to accomplish? It’s too early in the morning for this crew and the type of program this is! We’re now watching CBC. —Kathy

Very very sad when Canada AM was cancelled. I enjoyed starting my day with the the wonderful hosts and easygoing format. I was not able to enjoy a morning show when I was working, and once I retired Canada AM fit the bill perfectly! I think CTV made a mistake by trying to appeal to a younger age group. They are probably all at work and won’t be watching anyway. I decided to give Your Morning a chance and watched a few episodes—very disappointing :(. There is not much on TV  to appeal to 60-plus demographic anymore. I think I will probably turn off the TV and either read a good book or go for a walk instead! —Jane

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Email greg.david@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.

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Featured, Orphan Black

Comments and queries for the week of May 13

Canada AM‘s Jeff Hutcheson announces retirement

Jeff, the very best to you in the next transition in your life. I retired two years ago, but before that, I woke up to the AM gang. Loved it, the laughs, the classy ways of all of you. Bev and Marci must feel like their brother is leaving. I’m trusting you that you aren’t hiking off to live with Kelly Ripa to replace Michael! KIDDING. Enjoy. —Beverley

One of the reasons I watch Canada AM is because of Jeff’s genuine character, sense of humour and all around likability. He gets my day off to a happy start. I am happiest when he, Bev and Marci are all there together—you can tell they have a wonderful relationship. He will definitely be missed, but who could deny him a well-deserved retirement? I wish him all the best and hope he’ll drop by Canada AM on Skype or in person, now and again. Happy everything, Jeff! Enjoy every minute in good health. —Sharon

Donnie steals the spotlight in Orphan Black

I think Kristian Bruun is spectacularly talented, just like Maslany, and is getting a chance to showcase it on this show. It’s so fun to watch more and more of this couple because they are such a spectacularly dysfunctional, want-to-look-perfect suburban couple. When I first saw the fertility clinic scene, I knew he was going to call her and they would do some role play over the phone. They are so into each other in these weird ways, she really gets off on his neediness … did you catch the admiring glance they threw each other when he said, “Clear, concise, and colour coded, well done.” I thought that was a kind of foreplay for them! Then when he said Air Italia, I thought, ‘Oh, they’re into accents?!!!!’ ROFLMAO. More serious aspects of show aside, this was just wonderful, as good or better than the money-in-the-bedroom scene. The two lead actors are probably letting improv dictate this chemistry, and the results are fantastic. You get plenty of literary references, both are college educated, they have adopted children of colour specifically. So now we can predict that with Donnie asking Helena to be understanding of his wife’s envy, that Helena will go out of her way to make Alison feel very included in her pregnancy. Hand on belly and everything. They better do this. It’s what you do for a sestra, innit?

I LOVE this show and the actors they’ve assembled are amazing (Jordan, too). I’m seriously thinking of writing my own weekly blog on this show and a few other semi-sci-fi (highly speculative fiction!) shows I love. I think we will get to see Donnie and Alison get to experience pregnancy through Helena—we saw an inkling of this when Donnie and Helena went to the ultrasound together—they both are giving each other something the other never had: families, and babies. How beautiful is this show on some cosmic level? Amidst all this ugly manipulation, for-profit-minded genetic tampering, and weird subcultures (bifurcated dicks and sister-kissing, no less), there is this amazing undercurrent of love, and of challenging of notions about what constitutes “kin.” This is what I believe this show is all about on an emotional level. And the biotech angle is just whipped cream on the cake … hey there is an idea for Donnie and Alison to explore! —Heather

Jennifer Valentyne exits Breakfast Television Toronto

I have no idea how some of you could talk about Jen’s Live Eye segments as if they were a waste of time. They made the show worth watching. She will be missed greatly by so many of us long time BT viewers for a reason: she was simply fantastic! Charming, funny, enthusiastic, full of energy, personable, beautiful and so on. Good luck Jennifer V. No, I will not be watching BT very much at all anymore. Idiotic decision by The Rogers Corp. to let her go. —Todd

I am so sad to hear that BT let Jen go. Well, no more BT and CityLine. Back to Canada AM. —Mary

 

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? greg@tv-eh.com or via Twitter @tv_eh.

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Featured, Industry News

Canada AM’s Jeff Hutcheson announces retirement

5 Comments

It’s the end of the road for Jeff Hutcheson. The longtime sports reporter, weather guru and Canada AM co-host announced during Friday’s broadcast that he is retiring following one final remote tour across the country.

Canada AM followed up Hutcheson’s on-air reveal with the following Facebook post:

“This morning, Jeff shared the news that he is retiring next month. Of course, we’ve been heartbroken since he told us his decision last June… but his wife is thrilled. Since they met twelve years ago, Jeff and Heather have spent 2,600 nights apart, with his work in Toronto and her work and life in PEI. As we get ready to say farewell, Jeff is heading out on one last Canadian tour, visiting some of his favourite places and remembering some of his favourite moments. If you’re near Niagara-on-the-Lake next Wednesday, May 11th, please come out and join us. If you have any retirement messages or advice for Jeff, you can share it with us here, or email us at canadaam@ctv.ca”

“I am humbled and overwhelmed by all your well wishes…thank you very much,” Hutcheson posted on his Twitter page soon after. “Looking forward to my last six weeks..it’s been my pleasure.”

Hutcheson has been with Canada AM since 1998, and has created several trademark segments for the show, including remote broadcast tours that have taken him to points in Canada and around the world and “Things I Learned on the Internet Today.” He began his broadcast career in 1976 as a college student on Toronto’s CFRB 1010 radio before being hired by Kitchener, Ont.’s CKCO-TV after graduating. The next two decades were spent at CKCO-TV as a sports anchor, reporter, producer, writer and program host before making his final move to Canada AM.

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