Dumont 360 set

TQS haters were eagerly anticipating the premiere of Mario Dumont's new daytime talk show Dumont 360, one of the star attractions to V's fall lineup.

Though the rebranded station launched on Aug. 31, Dumont's show made its premiere a week later (ironically, on Labour Day, when most people with weekday jobs would take the day off) with Dumont introducing himself.

The critics' analysis: It could have been a lot worse (updated Sept. 9 with more links).

• Richard Therrien expected disaster, but it wasn't.
• Josée Legault had lukewarm criticisms.
• Michelle Coudé-Lord thought it was too long.
• Mario Asselin was disappointed.
• Projet J is neutral.
• Hugo Dumas pointed out that reporters' V-branded microphones gave the impression that V is doing journalism again, when the news reports are still being outsourced to ADN5.
• Christiane Charette had a panel debate Mario's performance (skip to 2:55 of the clip for the judgments).

Dumont 360 is basically a 60-minute talk show with Dumont as the moderator of a panel discussion. He's joined by Ève Couture, who chips in with news, man-on-the-street interviews and other stuff with the help of the giant touch-screen wall:

Eve Couture and the giant touch-screen wall

A five-minute segment of headlines is the closest the new TQS comes to having a newscast.

Rather than spend the hour on a bunch of different topics, Dumont picks one topic and sticks with it throughout the show. On Monday, it was the Olympic Stadium. On Tuesday, school dropouts. Serious, debatable issues, at least.

There's also a short segment in which Dumont gives his opinion (which I guess means the rest of the show is not-opinion). The segment is only a minute long, but he manages to get a good point in there.

Dumont and his producers weren't perfect in the debut, but that's understandable. The errors will lessen as they get more comfortable.

What struck me most about this show is how good an orator Dumont is. Perhaps it shouldn't have - this guy had been single-handedly running a political party for almost two decades - but he seems to speak to the camera better than Claude Poirier or Richard Martineau on LCN.

Nevertheless, I have a few humble suggestions for improving the show:

Bumpers longer than five seconds bore the audience

• Decrease the length of those bumbers. They slow down the show. If you need them to keep viewers occupied while you walk from the desk to the giant wall, consider rethinking that and either staying put or cutting to something else in the meantime.
• Giant touch screens seem to be all the rage in TV today, probably because of CNN. But they have a tendency to fail on camera, they're patently unnecessary, and they don't even look cool. You have a director who cues the videos, let that person do their job. Keep the giant screen, but don't touch it.
• Your table (actually three tables) looks very Toutlemondeenparle-ish with Dumont at the centre. It's huge, and when you have guests it looks like you're sitting across the room from each other. If you have to get up to hand your guest a piece of paper, you're sitting too far from each other. Find a comfortable distance so that you can interact without getting squished.
• I know you're a populist, but I honestly don't care what some moron on the street thinks of the issue of the day. Let your audience comment, but keep the streeters to a minimum.
• V should allow us to embed videos into blog posts and elsewhere, so we can better share the stuff we see.
• Cool it with the hands. Gestures are good for public speaking or accusing the opposition of nastiness, but they just get in the way when you're hosting a TV show. Don't tie them behind your back, but don't use them unnecessarily.

Dumont loves to use his hands

You can get more comments from Twitter users (#d360 seems the official hashtag, but #Dumont360 is more popular, or just search "Dumont 360"), or hear them straight from the horse's mouth: Dumont was the guest on V's Le show du matin Tuesday morning and asked what he thought of his premiere (Part 1, Part 2)

I'd make a suggestion about the news segment, but I'm hoping the powers that be recognize the viewer-attracting power of a proper newscast and bring back a news department some time over the next year.

Any other suggestions for Mario? Add them below.

UPDATE (Sept. 11): Patrick Lagacé says we should wait a bit before passing judgment. I agree that we shouldn't evaluate the show completely based on a single episode or two. But I don't think it's ever too early to offer suggestions on how Dumont could improve his show. Besides, first impressions are very important.

Related Posts

• Welcome to the new TV
• L’information qui VOUS préoccupe
• Politicien noir de la télé
• Fosse aux liones
• V pour vendre

This week's Bluffer's Guide (courtesy of yours truly) looks at the changes happening on the local television dial. The Globe and Mail's Grant Robertson also has a piece this morning, looking particularly at the upheaval at small money-losing stations owned by Canwest and CTVglobemedia.

Here's a timeline of what's going on this week in television:

Today, Aug. 31

• 5:30am: Channel Zero begins airing new programming on CJNT Montreal and CHCH Hamilton, only a few days after the CRTC approved the sale of the stations from Canwest. Channel Zero, which owns some cable channels but no conventional television stations, is supplementing CJNT's existing programming with foreign-language music videos and films. CHCH, meanwhile, will become all-news during the day (its afternoon schedule will have movies until the infrastructure is ready) with movies in primetime. The license officially changes hands at 12am on Sept. 1.
• Showcase rebrands
• MuchMusic's digital specialty channels MuchVibe, MuchLOUD, MuchMoreRetro, PunchMuch go commercial-free. MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic - which still have enough viewers to sell commercials - continue to air ads, as will programs that are simulcasted on the digital specialty channels and Much or MMM.
• CTV-owned "A" channel in Wingham, Ont., shuts down local programming and CKNX-TV becomes a retransmitter of CFPL-TV, the A station in London. The station is part of three that CTV had looked at selling or shutting down. Another, CKX-TV in Brandon, Man., has been sold to Bluepoint Investmestment Corp., and the third, CHWI-TV in Windsor, Ont., was saved from shutdown after the CRTC approved the Local Programming Improvement Fund. All three had received offers from Shaw to buy them, but then Shaw changed its mind.
• The BBM ratings system switches to the "Personal People Meter", a device that had been tested in the Montreal market, to allow nationwide monitoring of what people watch and listen to on TV and radio. The PPM is a pager-like device worn by sample audiences, and replaces the less accurate diaries that relied on self-reporting.
• 6am: TQS officially becomes V as the broadcast day begins with Le show du matin
• 5pm: CBC Montreal launches its new 90-minute newscast along with other stations across the country. The newscast will be structured as three consecutive 30-minute newscasts, and is part of CBC's "integration" (read: convergence) strategy of having journalists do stories for TV and radio at the same time (so they don't have to hire any more journalists). The competition says they're not worried.
• 8am (6am in Red Deer): CHCA, an E! network station in Red Deer, Alta., goes off the air. (UPDATE: Its last newscast, from last Friday, has been uploaded to YouTube in eight parts)
• 8:30am (5:30am in Kelowna): CHBC, a former E! network station in Kelowna, B.C., is rebranded "Global Okanagan" as the E! network shuts down.

Tomorrow, Sept. 1

• 12am: The CRTC begins billing cable and satellite companies 1.5% of their revenues for a Local Programming Improvement Fund, to help small-market television stations. Bell and Shaw, Canada's satellite providers, have responded by adding a 1.5% fee to consumers' bills beginning today. Videotron, Quebec's main cable provider, hasn't decided to follow suit yet.
• At the same time, the CRTC lifts the cap on the amount of advertising conventional television stations can air. It had previously been at 15 minutes per hour. The CRTC believes that the market will self-regulate the amount of advertising (after all, a station with too many ads is going to lose viewers).
• 1am (10pm in Victoria): CHEK-TV in Victoria goes off the air. See below.
• 6am: As conventional broadcast stations across the country (at least the ones that are part of large networks like Global, CTV, CityTV and TVA) get new one-year licenses, new local programming requirements come into effect. They require 7 hours of original programming for small markets and 14 hours for large markets (the latter includes Montreal on both the anglo and franco side). TVA's local programming numbers are defined on a case-by-case basis: 18 hours a week for Quebec City and 5 hours a week for Rimouski, Chicoutimi and Sherbrooke. TQS, because it got special consideration from the CRTC after going bankrupt, isn't affected by these changes.
• Three stations formerly of the E! network but owned by the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group - CHAT-TV in Medicine Hat, Alta., CKPG-TV in Prince George, B.C., and CFJC-TV in Kamloops, B.C. - begin airing programming secured from Rogers. It includes the Price is Right, the Tyra Banks Show and Judge Judy in daytime, and Hell's Kitchen and Law & Order: SVU in primetime.
• 6pm: Global Quebec CKMI becomes Global Montreal with a rebranded evening newscast after a CRTC decision this summer allowed them to relicense and accept local advertising. Global Ontario is similarly changing to Global Toronto.

Wednesday, Sept. 2

• 1am (10pm in Victoria): CHEK-TV in Victoria goes off the air. See below.

Thursday, Sept. 3

• 9pm: Fox airs a repeat of Fringe with a live on-screen Twitter stream of commentary from the show's creators

Saturday, Sept. 5

• 1am (10pm in Victoria): Canwest's CHEK-TV goes off the air... NOT. Canwest has accepted an offer to sell CHEK to its employees.

Monday, Sept. 7

• 5pm: Dumont 360, a talk show hosted by former ADQ leader Mario Dumont, premieres on TQS V.

Tuesday, Sept. 8

• 5pm: CBC Montreal's News at Six ... err, Five ... gets new anchors in Andrew Chang and Jennifer Hall.

Wednesday, Sept. 9

• 9pm: Télé-Québec premieres Voir, a show by the people behind the newspaper of the same name.

Also of note this week are the 25th anniversaries of MuchMusic (video, CP story) and TSN.

Did I miss anything? Suggest additions below.

Related Posts

• Mixed news at small Global, CTV stations
• CRTC Roundup: They saved local TV!
• Even more details about Montreal’s digital TV transition
• The Alouettes parade and the two solitudes
• Dumont 360: It could be worse

Mario Dumont likes to point. And do things in slow-motion.

(via the Clique)

Related Posts

• Dumont 360: It could be worse
• Welcome to the new TV
• Politicien noir de la télé
• Gazette World Cup ads to kick your balls with
• Fosse aux liones

Perhaps more interesting, Dumont is also being brought on as a consultant to the Rémillards, to advise them on the regenesis of their television network.

What do you think Dumont is going to recommend as far as TQS's regional stations go?

UPDATE: Pat Lagacé has some tips for someone trying out TV for the first time. Richard Therrien meanwhile points out that the ADQ opposed Remstar's gutting of TQS's news division, and now Dumont is profiting off of it.

Related Posts

• Dumont 360: It could be worse
• Welcome to the new TV
• L’information qui VOUS préoccupe
• The Mario Dumont Show
• Rolling the dice on Quebec’s infrastructure

Can't be any worse than what's already on Quebec talk radio, I guess...

Related Posts

• Politicien noir de la télé
• Rolling the dice on Quebec’s infrastructure
• Some reading on Quebec’s anti-scab law
• CRTC caves in to Cogeco
• Passerelle