Global Montreal’s morning show cast: Camille Ross (left), Richard Dagenais (centre) and Jessica Laventure. (Global photo)
It’s official: Global Montreal’s new local morning show begins next Monday.
The three-hour show, from 6am to 9am weekdays, was a promise that Shaw made to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission when it purchased the former Canwest television assets, including Global Television, in 2010. (The promise was for a minimum of 10 hours a week, or two hours a day, so it’s nice that they’re adding the extra hour.) This is in addition to the evening newscasts at 6pm and 11pm which will continue to run (though the latter needs to find a new anchor).
The show will have two hosts and a weather presenter, pictured above. I already told you about Camille Ross, who left CTV Montreal for this higher-profile (and full-time) gig. Richard Dagenais is already familiar to Global Montreal viewers as a reporter and anchor of News Final at 11pm. His selection here is a no-brainer because he was a host of This Morning Live, Global Quebec’s morning show that was cancelled in 2008.
The new face here is Jessica Laventure, who will be doing weather. She was a morning host at MétéoMédia, and before that worked at Global Quebec as a production assistant, reporter and host of the weekly QC Magazine. She also does a weekend show at Boom FM. But I know her best as a former teachers’ assistant at Concordia University’s journalism program, where she taught kids not much younger than herself how to use fun electronic equipment (myself included).
Global bills this as “the city’s only locally-produced English-language morning show”, which is true, but also conveniently leaves out the fact that competition is right around the corner. City Montreal, as CJNT will be known when its acquisition by Rogers is complete, is also launching a local morning show by September, which will go head-to-head with Global’s. Will the six-month head start make the difference for Global? We’ll see.
Shaw has promised a total of at least $5 million for the Global Montreal morning show through 2016-17, or about $1 million a year, second only to Toronto, which was promised $3 million a year. (This is the total of special funding and does not necessarily represent their entire budgets.) Shaw said the goal is to make the shows sustainable so they will keep running even after the special funds run out in 2017.
I’ve written up a brief for The Gazette, but I’ll be getting more details about the show this week as I talk to everyone involved for a longer story.
Global is also launching a local morning show in Halifax at the same time, completing its roll-out plan. Its cast includes Crystal Garrett, whose CV includes a stint as a host of This Morning Live.
From what I remember of This Morning Live, Richard Dagenais was always a roving reporter for the show, never a anchor(at least in the strict definition of anchor). Is he doing the same thing again(a roving reporter)? For me the new face to Global Montreal is Camille Ross. Jessica Laventure has worked on & off on-air for Global Montreal for at least several years.
Sorry I meant, Richard Dagenais was Never Never a host of This Morning Live from my memory. He was a roving reporter doing a hit every half hour on TML(on-location at a different site each day).
A good question here Steve, is will this new morning show just be a gab fest and running reports from the newscasts the night before. or will there be other reporters possibly doing weekly segments and regular features sort of similar to what CTV does for its noon newscast..various light segments and others..
Maybe reporters specializing in certain subjects..local entertainment for example, as there’s a crying need for that type, interviewing those up and comers…there’s all sorts of talent out there on social media, YouTube.music sites like Reverbnation getting hits in the tens and hundreds of thousands. but not known on the streets or mainstream…I could probably find other subject ideas..
There’s three hours to fill and it doesn’t matter how good your anchors are, it’s still three hours..I remember your reading about you panned the National Global show and it’s only half an hour..This is three hours..So maybe some valid questions to ask when you have your chat with the Montreal folks..
Troy Reeb, Shaw Media’s vice-president of news, tells me that the show will be somewhere between a newscast and a gab fest, probably closer to the newsy feel. Having some news from the night before makes sense (aren’t all morning shows like that?), but I don’t know if they’ll actually run packaged reports from the night before or just talk about it. Their means are limited by the small staff, so you shouldn’t expect The Today Show here.
I spoke to Karen MacDonald, the station manager. She says they will run some packaged reports from the night before, but their use of those will be limited. It will be more anchors reading news, and conducting interviews.
Did you asked Karen MacDonald if they did any focus groups, before deciding on final set-up of the show? That’s what Karen told me several months ago(she even asked me, if I wanted to part of the focus group in developing of Global Montreal Morning Show). Never heard from her again. Are they planning any live full test trials of the program before it’s debut next Monday?
Ok, so another plain, non-creative studio show…with no outside reports or specialty segments,etc..so as mentioned up above..another gabfest..which could change depending what CITY does in September..which indications being what I have been reading here and other sources is that they will have other reporters or correspondants doing other poossibly light segments…etc
Where do you get that there won’t be outside reports? I’ve been told the opposite, that Laventure in particular will be doing regular field reports.
I saw that she will be doing her weather hits from West Island…but is that everyday..would there be hits from other areas of town..Downtown, the West End,, the southwest, or that growing area of Hudson-St.Lazare, etc..
That’s the idea. They’ll have a regular location and she’ll be live from there most if not all days.
I’d rather see a good evening local newscast around 10pm in the vein of WPIX.
Who needs another morning show? People are running around, getting ready for work or getting kids out the door to school.
@ William, excellent point..this is where they might and could use other lighter segments or subject-specific segments for those not running around…and with nothing to do, so to speak….
Richard Dagenais is one of the all time nice guys, so I’m glad to see him hosting the new show. He’s also a fantastic jazz crooner. Maybe a little singing on the show?
To the team : Congrantulation on your 1st day. Atlas a morning show from Montreal.
The interesting part is that your doing the weather from the West Island , finally we re
being seen on the map. Keep up the good work. Suzanne
I thought I heard Richard Dagenais doing the news on CJAD this morning.