Last weekend was one of my favourite for TV watching: the Masters and the World Curling Championship. It was great to see up-and-comer Trevor Immelman hang on to take the green jacket. My biggest fear after Saturday's third round was that Tiger Woods would lurk around the front page of the leaderboard, go out and shoot a decent score and everyone ahead of him would topple over like dominoes heading down the stretch. Many did, and Immelman certainly didn't play his best Sunday, but it was good enough.
As for curling, it was good to see Kevin Martin of Canada finally win a world championship after so many heartbreaking disappointments. This means both the Canadian women and men's curling teams won gold at the worlds this year, a feat which is becoming rarer all the time.
Speaking of curling coverage, the CBC sports brass has made another fine mess of things. They had broadcasting rights this year for covering the round-robin and the finals of both world championships this year. Instead of showing the games on the main network, most games were shown Dose (formerly known as CBC Country Canada) which few Canadians subscribe to.
Heaven forbid the CBC would move a re-run of Antiques Roadshow to broadcast a curling game. The women's world final garnered an audience of 1.1 million people! Shows like Dragon's Den and Rumours routinely get fewer than 250,000.
Some are claiming that the CBC ought to be praised instead of jeered -- previous to this year, there was no obligation to cover any of the world round-robin if it was being played outside Canada. Who cares? If the ratings are there, why not show it on the main network?
The days of the CBC claiming to be the almighty protector of Canadian culture are gone, if they ever existed to begin with. Private broadcasters like CTV are doing more for Canadian culture than the CBC hands down. CTV shows like E!Talk Daily discuss what Canadian celebrities are doing in Canada and around the world. They do an equally excellent job with television awards shows like the Junos.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:44 PM
