He's a cool guy to have, but I hope he doesn't bring politics into the broadcast. The one thing I dislike about the CBC broadcasts are the endless tributes to the troops and whatnot. It's not a PC thing to say, and I do respect those who've done well for the country, but keep police officers, musicians and whatnot out of the broadcast. It's shoved down our throats every week. I want an escape from reality and that's what sports is all about. Strombo does nothing to change that if I'm guessing from his guests on his show. Stick to the game.
Propagandhi touches on this very topic in Dear Coaches Corner:
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jonah @yyzsportsmedia 7m
Besides the @strombo news, I'm told there will be a blood lettering at CBC sports in the coming days
wth is a blood lettering ? new blood soaked logo ?
Strombo should bring some life back to HNIC , dump Healy/Weekes bring a couple personable "analysts" and HNIC may live again
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He has come along way from Much. Congrats to him, hopefully he doesn't become another CBC media drone praising the Leafs and Canucks like majority the of them.
George has a decent show hopefully Hockey Night in Canada lets him bring that edgy style of interviewing that he has become known for.
Yuk. Watched him interview Bobby Orr...what a terrible interview. He wouldn't let him finish answering a single question. Lost all respect I had for him if that's how he treats a legend. Literally interrupted every time half way through trying to be funny or just to ask another question.
Terrible hire.
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Yuk. Watched him interview Bobby Orr...what a terrible interview. He wouldn't let him finish answering a single question. Lost all respect I had for him if that's how he treats a legend. Literally interrupted every time half way through trying to be funny or just to ask another question.
Terrible hire.
I don't know, maybe that was just a bad interview for him, but he's quite literally the opposite of everything you mentioned.
He takes after Larry King (he's explained how Larry's a huge influence on him) and likes to let the guest do most of the talking in interviews.
He does tons of research, is a huge Habs fan and very knowledgeable hockey fan, and a great interviewer.
Great hire, and I'm excited to see him on HNIC.
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I do like Ron's approach but certain aspects have become stale (as have lots of other aspects of the production aside from just him). My biggest pet peeve with Ron is that he seems to think that dozens of references to Jim Cuddy and Blue Rodeo every season isn't excessive.
It's time for Cherry to go too. He's undoubtedly a Canadian icon and it will be a sad day when he is gone, but it's long since been time to ride off into the sunset. The content isn't relevant, the suits aren't funny or even novel anymore, and the only good part about it is you sometimes get a good pun from Ron at the end. Not sure who you replace him with though, or if you even try to continue Coach's Corner.
I'm not sure what he'll be like in a hockey setting, but I know in the political circles he's very well respected and gets lots of praise from top guests.
I remember Bill Maher saying a few years ago that there's this interviewer in Canada that blows everybody in our (United States) country out of the water and he was shocked the first time he was interviewed because George looked like a punk rocker and he assumed it would be a short, shallow interview and it ended up being the best one in his press tour.
He praised him again when George got that summer special series on CNN and was one of his first guests. It was also rumoured that Larry King had a huge hand in getting George onto CNN. There's been lots of political guys that really respect George and love his long-form interview style.
He's a genuine, talented personality, it'll be interesting to see how he does in a hockey setting, but I'd imagine he'll do very well.
First video is George on CNN, with lots of praise in the first 30 seconds.
Second one is a great watch to get a feel for George's interview style if you have 20 minutes.
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Good hire. I like George, I like his interview style, and I know for a fact he's a huge hockey fan and quite knowledgeable about the sport. I think he'll do well.
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Wow. Complaints before he starts. Colour me surprised
I found it interesting that most of the complaints were things that could have been cleared up with a tiny bit of research. "Well, what if he doesn't know anything about hockey?"
Umm, then they probably wouldn't have hired him for the role?
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I found it interesting that most of the complaints were things that could have been cleared up with a tiny bit of research. "Well, what if he doesn't know anything about hockey?"
Umm, then they probably wouldn't have hired him for the role?
Well this is CBC after all, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they just chose the most popular guy on their network, rather than doing a proper search to find the right guy for the role.
Wow. Complaints before he starts. Colour me surprised
Well the guy has a long history of being on TV so it isn't like people are complaining without having any idea of who the guy is or what he brings to a TV show.
As someone who isn't looking forward to him being the host I did say that I hope he can be better in this role than he is on his current show. So I guess complaining but allowing for the chance that he could do a decent job in a different role from what he currently does.
