Rob Ford gets TV show on Sun News Network

[freqfreak2]

I am also surprised that he has patched things up with his brother Doug enough for them to co-host the Sun show.

The desire to hang on to power often makes for strange bedfellows.

[Jack Bennest]

I really should have let Bennest have the last word.

Okay I have been released out into the bull pen.

Opinions and comments - the nature of a message board but we all should be able to state our side and argue without it getting personal.
(Not me)

I think the topic was broadcasting - should the Ford Nation be allowed. Yes. All kinds of idiots have been on the radio/TV in my lifetime. Turn it off if you don't like it.

Balance at the CBC - I think the CORP does an incredible job of reflecting Canada (sea to sea to sea) with my money. And yes there are right wing/business/corporates/Tories allowed on the CBC. Suzuki....you can love it or leave it. I don't think of left or right when I am watching a documentary.

Let's face it the business community often says the media is left wing even when a pillar of their community owns it. You can't win but our system allows for just about anyone to have their say.

Back to the Fords - it must be greed - no one else in this country could benefit from the damage being done to the reputation of Toronto and Canada. A pox on their lives.

[tuned]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fcNDlhHFNw

[jon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fcNDlhHFNw

The link is reporting that the video has been pulled by the User who submitted it.

[jon]

Ford brothers hit prime time on Sun News Network
By Shawn Jeffords
Toronto Sun
First posted: Sunday, November 17, 2013 06:00 PM EST | Updated: Monday, November 18, 2013 10:02 AM EST

Toronto’s embattled mayor is about to go prime time.

Rob Ford spent more than four hours Sunday in Sun News Network’s downtown studio recording what could be the first of a regular show, dubbed “Ford Nation.” The mayor was mum about the contents of the show, which will air at 8 p.m. Monday, as he left the station.

But before entering the building for the taping, the mayor seemed feisty when challenged by reporters about giving his staffers a $5,000 raise Friday.

“My budget is $1 million less than (former mayor) David Miller’s budget, let’s put it that way,” he said. “I’m saving $1 million dollars.”

Ford has been plagued by scandal for weeks after admitting to smoking crack, drinking and driving and making lewd comments. He has issued a series of public apologies.

The show, which will feature the mayor and his brother, premiers just over a week after his radio program on Newstalk 1010 was cancelled. The free-wheeling show was controversial because Ford used it as a podium to bypass media and speak directly to his supporters.

Monday’s television show will be a little different, said Kory Teneycke, vice-president of Sun News. He likened the program to a “Barbara Walters special” where the Fords will be able to express themselves and viewers can judge what they see.

“This is an opportunity for the Fords, in their own words, to make their own explanations,” he said. “People can watch and make whatever judgment they have about their sincerity.”

Teneycke said the network approached the Fords after their radio show was cancelled. No money has changed hands to make it happen, he said.

And just a few days removed from the mayor’s explicit sexual comments on live television, Teneycke said the network will deliver a “G-rated” product to viewers but acknowledged “it is impossible to script the Fords.”

The show will consist of the Ford’s sharing the air with some undisclosed guests, editorials and some pre-recorded streeters from the city residents.

Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington moderates the show with Sun News host Ezra Levant.

Warmington said some critics have complained the mayor will duck or dodge questions — even in this new format. That won’t be the case, he insisted.

“It was definitely Ford’s show, but he had a lot of tough questions and he dealt with everything,” Warmington said after the taping.

Ford will actually be competing with himself for viewers Monday night as CNN is slated to air Anderson Cooper’s interview with the mayor at 8 p.m., as well.

[Blabbermouth]

by SIMON HOUPT
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Nov. 19 2013, 5:05 PM EST


Ford Nation is dead - on Sun News, at least.

Less than 24 hours after its debut on Monday night, the conservative cable news channel axed Ford Nation, its highly touted TV talk show starring Rob and Doug Ford, despite record ratings for the network.

Sun News had announced the show only last Thursday, saying it would provide a regular outlet for the Fords to speak directly to both supporters and detractors.

Earlier this month, the brothers had parted ways with Toronto’s Newstalk 1010, their home for a regular two-hour Sunday afternoon radio program since February, 2012.

While Ford Nation pulled about 155,000 viewers, according to overnight ratings, it is a victim of the brutal economics of cable TV and the Fords’ relative inexperience with the medium: Monday’s episode took five hours to record, and another eight hours to edit, making it an unusually expensive endeavour for a niche network that is in only about 40 per cent of Canadian households.

“It’s by far the most successful thing, from an audience perspective, the network has ever done,” said Kory Teneycke, the vice president of Sun News. But the program would not be produced again.

“For the Ford brothers, we welcome them back on our network, as we do all newsmakers, to be part of our programming as a guest on another show.”

During Monday’s broadcast, Sun Media personalities Joe Warmington and Ezra Levant took turns quizzing the Fords on the controversy and how they were holding up under the pressure.

“All I can do is assure you I’m changing my behaviour,” Mayor Ford told viewers. “I was elected to go down to City Hall to end the gravy train. It’s still not over. I have a lot of work to do.“

When Doug Ford boasted about their persistent popularity in the face of the scandal, saying it took him 15 minutes to get out of the parking during a recent trip to Wal-Mart after he was mobbed by supporters, his brother interjected: “Fifteen? I went out to a restaurant last night, took my family out, it took me four hours to leave the restaurant. It’s humbling.”

But Ford Nation was hampered by logistics: while the Fords’ gift for relating to regular folk was on vivid display during their live Newstalk show, the pre-taped format of the Sun broadcast left them speaking only with each other and the hosts.

That forced the Fords to fall back onto their talking points. Asked by a viewer on tape if the mayor should be a role model, Rob Ford said: “Absolutely you should be a role model. But I’m only human.” He then added: “Am I perfect? I’m not perfect. But I’ll tell you what I am perfect at - watching taxpayers’ money, creating jobs, stimulating the economy.”

The decision to give the Fords their own show was controversial even within Sun Media. “Given all we know about the Fords, I’d suggest that a healthy skepticism is warranted when it comes to whatever they plan to say on their new Sun News talk show,” wrote Lorrie Goldstein, a Sun columnist and former Ford supporter. The Toronto Sun has called repeatedly for the mayor to step down.

At least one marketer distanced themselves from the show. On Tuesday afternoon, the official Canadian Tire feed tweeted: “We've learned that a manufacturer(s) using our logo ran an ad on Ford Nation last night. We did not place the ad or target the show.” Its logo had appeared on ads for Rockwell Tools.

Other advertisers on Ford Nation, which ran during a primetime slot normally occupied by Ezra Levant’s The Source, included the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, CLR cleaner, Puresleep sleep aids, Ooma telephone service, Oreck air purifiers, and Big Boss smart-top cooker.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/tor ... e15511486/

[Mike Cleaver]

Hahahahahahaha!

[Blabbermouth]

That is a bizarre excuse to cancel a tv show that got good ratings...it took too long to edit? I'd like to hear some behind the scene accounts of what really happened.