Jessica Laventure has been spending a lot of this month crying on the air.
On Wednesday morning, a week after she bid an emotional goodbye to anchor Camille Ross, weather presenter Jessica Laventure announced she too is leaving the show. In her case, it’s to work for Club Med in Punta Cana on the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic.
Her last day is Thursday.
Like Ross, Laventure had been at Global Montreal since they relaunched the morning show in January 2013, but had also worked at the station years ago when it was Global Quebec. In between, she worked at MétéoMédia and Boom FM.
Laventure brought an infectious sense of fun to the morning show, at a level that should not be possible for someone who wakes up well before 6am every day. And while her personality will undoubtedly make her a good fit at Club Med, it also leaves big shoes to fill.
“We’re really very sad to see her go, she’s just so good but adventure is reaching out to her and she seized the moment,” explained station manager Karen Macdonald, who will now have to find not only a new host but a new weather person as well.
On one hand, she’ll have the summer to do it. But on the other hand, with Canada AM cancelled and CTV’s new national morning show to launch in the fall, this would have been an opportunity for Global Montreal to try to lure away some viewers who want a news-centric morning show that isn’t a straight newscast. Instead, the station has to deal with its own upheaval.
The secret is out. Tomorrow is my last day on the air. I'm leaving to work for @ClubMedCA in #PuntaCana! #chasingdreams #GOlife
— . (@JessLaventure) June 29, 2016
A sad day @Global_Montreal @JessLaventure announces she is leaving for the beaches of #ClubMed fun and adventure! pic.twitter.com/ASBohlXHqb
— Paola Samuel (@PaolaSamuel) June 29, 2016
It's been an honour and a pleasure to share my mornings on-air with @JessLaventure & @camillesross. Going to miss them both terribly.
— Kelly Greig (@KellyGreig) June 29, 2016
UPDATE: Laventure opens up in a blog post about her decision to leave Global.
Camille and now Jessica? Wow, the morning team must have just decided June was the month to go! Sad, those two were great hosts. I hope they don’t just send weather duties to Toronto, like they did when Jessica was away.
I agree, some big shoes to fill, but with recent departures and musical media chairs around local media, it shouldn’t be too hard to find available people even though most of those changes were of the radio variety.
But Richard Dagenais should be definitely brought back to steady the ship as he’s well liked and started the show with Camille and Jessica.
It’s doubtful that they would go backwards and put Richard back in… and to be honest, he would be a fool to take the job because they have already considered him expendable. If he did go back, he would have to consider it as short term work, because they are likely to let him go again as soon as they can.
What is going on with English morning TV in Montreal? I adore this bubbly weather presenter. She is a delight. Good luck Jessica, You have made every single one of my mornings happier.
Camille and Jess were talented. Global doing their morning show on a shoestring budget really benefitted from their combined skill. Could be a rocky summer as the show finds it’s footing.
Any better sense on who will fill those spots? Will Kelly Greig come into studio to work the desk?
Funny story, I actually worked a season at that very same Club Med. Let’s just say that she is very likely in for a bit of a shock when she realizes it’s not really as much fun as they suggest. But I do wish her luck, a very few GOs go on to have careers in the company, and perhaps she has the personality and the skills to pull it off…
Here’s something to consider:
Today The Beat posted a job opening for Natasha Hall’s job. Since she’s already done TV and was Global’s first traffic reporter, my guess is she’s leaving The Beat to replace Jessica on the Global AM show (or could possibly be the new anchor, even?)
Another guess: she’s leaving to go to the company in St. Laurent that provides traffic reports to the Bell stations.
Global’s station manager hasn’t even returned from vacation yet. Unless it’s as a temporary fill-in, I don’t see that decision being made so quickly.
Ah, good point. Unless it was prearranged. There’s no telling how far in advance Jessica gave notice. I’m sure the Global execs didn’t find out on the air the day before, as viewers did.
Whatever the circumstances of Natasha’s vacancy from The Beat morning show, she’s obviously still on good terms with Cogeco as she hasn’t been scrubbed from the station website (as would most likely be the case if she had been fired. “The agency disavows all knowledge of their existence,” for those old enough to remember the classic TV show The FBI.
In other Beat personnel news, there’s also an assistant program director opening at the station, posted about a week ago. Wasn’t/isn’t that Ken Connors’s gig?
Wasn’t the TV show you’re referring to Mission Impossible?
And I haven’t heard of a new Program Director?
Media Man,
Yes, you’re correct, of course. I realized it was Mission: Impossible right after I posted the comment. I also got the quote about “the agency” somewhat wrong. I should have taken the 30 seconds to Google it before hitting “send.”
As you may know, The Beat’s PD Sam Zniber was let go earlier this year. Fagstein has plenty of coverage. The PD duties were taken over by someone in Cogeco’s French programming department. Ken Connors has been the station’s longtime assistant program director, and he’s still listed on the website. The Beat just last week posted a job opening for an APD, same job description as Ken’s, so I was wondering what happened to Ken.
Stupid me: i just checked The Beat’s website and totally forgot the PD is none other than Martin Tremblay, ex of Astral/Bell. I believe he was a key player in Ted Bird’s bitter departure from CHOM. Or maybe that was another Tremblay.
And, if you look at the drop down menu on The Beat’s e-mail contact list, both Sarah and Kim are still listed!
That was Daniel Tremblay. Not the same guy, though Martin Tremblay did also work at Astral.
Maybe Sarah and Kim were friendly departures, or somebody in IT is asleep at the wheel..
As for assistant PD, Daniel Tremblay is probably occupied with their French stations, and a right hand person is probably what he needs at their only Anglo station…the guy they hire will probably be the defacto PD on an assistant’s salary scale..
Just tuned in this morning, to who would fill in for Jessica Laventure(otherwise I would almost never watch the Global Montreal morning show). It’s turns out, it’s Kim Sullivan(from checking her on Twitter now, looks like she will at least fill in for the summer on this morning show).
Thanks for the tip. I watched and she’s really good!! A natural for TV: has she done any television in the past?
Kim is also doing the weather for the Global Montreal noon news broadcast M-F(as Jessica also did). Her previous TV experience is limited to local cable community tv in Ottawa & Montreal.
Why did Mr.Zane leave BT?
The station manager –senior producer Renato Zane has left? When was this announced?
Who’s taking this place? Can’t believe all the changes and cutbacks in local morning TV..
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