| George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Hour (2005–2010) |
| Genre | Talk show |
| Presented by | George Stroumboulopoulos |
| Opening theme | "The Good in Everyone" by Sloan |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | Currently in its 8th season |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jennifer Dettman George Stroumboulopoulos |
| Location(s) | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Running time | 60 min. (2005–2010, 2011–present) 30 min. (2010–2011) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBC Newsworld (2005–2009) CBC Television (2006–present) |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV), 720p (HDTV) |
| Original airing | January 17, 2005 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight is a Canadian television talk show broadcast on CBC Television and hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos. Originally known as The Hour from 2005 to 2010, it first aired on January 17, 2005. The program is currently initially broadcast on CBC Television at 11:05 p.m. local time (11:35 p.m. in Newfoundland). Until 2009, The Hour was seen Monday to Friday at 8:00 p.m. ET on CBC Newsworld; the program was discontinued on that channel in October 2009, when CBC Newsworld was revamped as the CBC News Network.
As The Hour, the show was so named, as it was a daily one hour program. For the show's seventh season, the show was renamed and shortened into a daily thirty minute show, George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, beginning September 20, 2010.[1] In September 2011, the program was again extended to sixty minutes with its current name.[2]
The show's opening theme song is "The Good in Everyone" by Canadian rock band Sloan. It replaced the formerly used track, "Use It" from The New Pornographers at the start of the 2008 broadcast season.
Contents |
The Hour generally opened with Stroumboloupoulos standing just outside the studio, where he addressed the camera, giving the audience hints about each of the upcoming guests. Then, he sometimes made a mention of Sloan (the band who performs the theme song) and proceeded to "Start the Show." While the title flash was shown, George would walk into the studio, past some audience members, and sit down in his red armchair. He then would introduce himself to the audience and the viewers by saying, "Welcome to the show, I'm your boyfriend, George Stroumboloupoulos". He then provided an introduction to each of the guests, briefly describing what they will talk about.
Before each guest entered, Stroumboloupoulos would say a few words about them, then the show would cut to "The Bio." The Bio, a short description, consisted of a series of pictures and video clips, with a voiceover directed at George. During this time, the guest would enter the studio, and take their place in the second red armchair.
Show segments on The Hour included:
On some programs, Stroumboulopoulos read aloud viewer correspondence, in a segment called "George Reads the Mail."
In earlier seasons, segments on The Hour had included:
The final segment of the show was called "The Closer," and consisted of a monologue by Stroumboulopoulos about a particular current event. Since January 2007, this segment has been replaced by "The List." On some programs, the show ends immediately after the final guest, without "The Closer" or "The List."
Stroumboulopoulos starts with some introductory notes about himself and the content, then usually presents items in The Debrief giving his own opinion about them. Then sometimes a brief interview, followed by an in-depth interview with a major guest beginning with a biography segment in similar format to The Hour. Starting in September 2011, there are two interviews with major guests.
Some of the previous guests have included: The Tragically Hip, M.I.A., Eckhart Tolle, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Wyclef Jean, Chris Jericho, Tom Cruise, Bill Maher, James Cameron, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Marlee Matlin, Tim Robbins, Spike Lee, Ricky Gervais, Tony Bennett, Greg Kinnear, John Legend, David Byrne, former President of the United States Jimmy Carter, Larry King, LeBron James, Henry Rollins, Evangeline Lilly, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Alanis Morissette, Malcolm Gladwell, Richard Branson, Howard Zinn, Kings of Leon, Kylie Minogue, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Sean Avery, former Canadian Prime Ministers Paul Martin and Brian Mulroney, P!nk, Smashing Pumpkins, David Suzuki, Mike Holmes, Douglas Coupland, Naomi Klein, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Tammet, David Thewlis, Larry Charles, Dana White, Tony Robbins, Gordon Ramsay, Dave Salmoni and Adrien Brody.
George conducted the last public interview granted by journalist and social activist June Callwood before her death.
In 2007, The Hour ran a Christmas Special featuring musical performances on set. On June 6, 2008, the show featured an hour-long special with British band Coldplay, on December 9 an hour-long special with actor Tom Cruise and on December 31, 2008 ran a New Year's Eve Special featuring an interview with former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
| Name | Season | Period | First broadcast | Repeat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Hour |
2 |
2005 2006 |
Monday to Thursday 8 p.m. ET on CBC Newsworld |
Monday to Thursday 11 p.m. ET on CBC Newsworld |
| The Hour |
4 5 |
Oct 2006 - Sept 2007 Oct 2007 - Sept 2008 Oct 2008 - Sept 2009 |
Monday to Friday 8 p.m. ET on CBC Newsworld |
Monday to Friday 11 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. NL) on CBC Television |
| The Hour |
|
Oct 2009 - 2010 | Monday to Friday 11:05 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. NL) on CBC Television |
Tuesday to Saturday 5 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. NL) on CBC Television |
| George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight |
|
Sept 2010 - | Monday to Friday 11:05 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. NL) on CBC Television |
Tuesday to Saturday 5 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. NL) on CBC Television |
The program typically tapes at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto, Monday to Friday in front of a live studio audience, then is broadcast at 11:05pm (ET).[3][4]
The show has gone on location to Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and St. John's, and has twice broadcast from London, U.K..
One remote broadcast came out of an interview with enterprising trader Kyle MacDonald who said the only limitation to his activities would be that he would not make any trade with the citizenry of a small village called Yahk, British Columbia. When the citizens protested the exclusion by writing letters to the show, the trader accused Stroumboulopoulos of hypnotizing him into making that statement and he would only go to that town if the show went there first. On February 9, 2006, the producers broadcast an episode from that village.
The Hour has won six Gemini Awards: