CTV Olympic host Brian Williams: “I can’t wait” blogged by William Houston Truth & Rumours February 3, 2010 After a four year absence, Brian Williams returns to the Olympics as host of CTV’s Vancouver prime time coverage.
He says, if anything, his enthusiasm has increased. And, of course, Vancouver, as Canada’s first domestic Games in 22 years, will be special.
“This is why I left the CBC,” he said in an interview. “I was very happy there. They treated me well. But, I’m 63 and I’m fortunately a young, healthy 63.
“And to do the Games in my own country and then to do London in 2012, I’m very much looking forward to it.”
Williams has spent months researching the Olympics and the international competitors, an assignment he says he enjoyed.
“It’s something that fascinates me. I have an Olympic library at home and I’m always reading. I was a history major at school. And having done 12 Olympics, one tends to prepare for the next one.”
Late last week, he checked into a Vancouver hotel which will be home until the Games are over. He is spending this week and next preparing for the two week coverage and particularly the telecast of the opening ceremony, which he will co-host with Lloyd Robertson of CTV News and former Olympian Catriona Le May Doan.
As prime time host, he will be on the air daily from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET. The eight hour shift is necessitated by the time difference between the Pacific and Eastern zones.
Two a.m. in the East, after all, will be 11 p.m. in Vancouver, where live events will still be taking place.
He says he thrives on the workload. And he raves about the quality of features CTV has produced.
“I’ve just seen the essay to open the pre-ceremony show on Friday and it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s almost theatrical. The ‘I Believe’ song, which Alan Frew wrote and Nikki Janovsky sings, really is special.”
Williams notes that features are particularly important to the Winter Games.
“There aren’t that many events in the Winter Olympics. If, for example, alpine skiing goes down, you’d better be ready to dance, baby.”
CTV’s telecast is expected to be more tightly scripted than what we’re used to seeing on the CBC. Keith Pelley, the head of the CTV-Rogers Olympics consortium, came away from the Beijing Olympics impressed by NBC’s structured coverage.
Williams is more accustomed to working in a free wheeling, extemporaneous environment. He notes that a live production needs the flexibility to adjust quickly to breaking news.
“I think what Keith wants to do is take the best from everybody,” Williams said. “CBC did a wonderful job at Beijing, NBC did too. Yes, there will some scripting.
“But, listen, when you’re sitting there and the fur is flying, and you’re going live in 100 different directions, there is no time to script stuff.”
There will be plenty of breaking news to report, regardless of whether the Canadian team lives up to expectations or not.
A failure for Canada to win a medal on the first weekend will hurt CTV in terms of viewer enthusiasm and audiences for the first week. A gold medal would be a first for a Canadian athlete in a domestic Games. As Williams notes, the best Canada could do at Montreal in 1976 and Calgary in 1988 were silver medals.
How will Canada perform?
“I’m not saying Canada will win the most medals,” Williams said. “I’m hearing all kinds of weird predictions.
“But I think 26 would be a great success. It could be higher. Certainly Canada has a shot at winning the overall medal totals.”
Canadians won a record 24 medals at Turin, third behind Germany and the United States. So, a haul of 26 would mark an improvement of two.
(Sports Illustrated predicts Canada will win 30, 10 of them gold, second to Germany, 35.)
READ MORE HERE! You'll have to scroll down to the Feb. 3rd post.
What would an Olympics telecast be without Brian Williams? Much better, I would suggest. We'll just have to put up with it I guess, or watch the jingoistic American coverage.
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