Unless you were inundated by press releases like I was, you probably didn’t know CBC’s Cover Me Canada premiered tonight. But that’s not your fault, it had heavy competition going up against the Emmys, leaving most of eastern Canada to choose between the popular award show and the unheard of reality singing competition.
Luckily, those of us in the western part of Canada got to take advantage of time shifting and were able to watch both the Emmys and Cover Me Canada.
But in case you didn’t get to watch, here are my immediate thoughts.
Three things I liked:
-The talent: The bands up for the top prize of $100,000 can actually sing. If this show is going to stand out among all the other singing shows, then focusing on the this country’s amazing talent is the best way to do it. With just a brief segment with each of the show’s bands, producers have chosen a great variety of exciting contestants, that seem to be break today’s pop idol mold. Which means yes, they skipped the audition process and I’m really, really thankful.
-The set: Picture what you thought the set of a CBC rock concert show would look like and then immediately forget it. Weak lighting, a lame set and the show’s overall production would have been easy reasons to change the channel, but Cover Me Canada is proof that the network has been getting our tax dollars.
-The winner: I like how Cover Me Canada will let the judges pick which band will be eliminated each week. Thanks to every single winner of Canadian Idol, Canadians have been proven that we can’t be trusted when given the power of the vote.
Three things I didn’t like:
-Nicole Appleton’s accent: If you can identify it, you win.
-The judges: It’s not that I don’t like the judges completely, I think they are just finding their “characters.” Jordan, I’m over it. We don’t need you to just be nice. Deborah Cox said that she liked the first band because she “could hear every word they sang.” Ron Fair is awesome, except that he also told the first band that they were the ones to beat. If that’s not producer manipulation, I don’t know what is.
-Song length: I’m not sure how long the bands were allowed to sing, but it felt like they were only singing for ten seconds, enough to sing the chorus and maybe a few other lines. I know the show has a lot of bands to get through, but the judges’ elaborate critiques seemed pretty in-depth for the likely sixty second performance. This problem will hopefully be fixed as more and more bands get eliminated.
Final thought: I’ll be honest, I went into watching Cover Me Canada wanting to hate it and afterwards, it really surprised me. It wasn’t that bad. The producers, judges and contestants seem to know what they are doing and it’s remarkably watchable. Like I said, I really wanted to hate it. If done with Simon and Paula, then Cover Me Canada is singing your tune.
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Three weeks in the sound still is horrid. Watch it crash and burn …… If you are still watching. Click.
Ok I guess you aren ‘t.
The host is awful. I have started a drinking game about her. You take a sip every time that she yells. You have to chug it every time she mis-reads her tele-prompter.
The bands….. What did they do, travel to Canadian Legion halls or wedding reception halls to find groups? The weirdest has to be the one with the violin playing chick and the rapper “DJ” in the same bad… WTF ??
Speaking of the violin chick, this week the CBC cameras caught lots of under-skirt shots of her with the location of the cameras. White panties for those that are keeping score.
The judges…. Who is the dude on the left? Did he just arrive from Jersey Shore? Not an intelligent word has exited his head. Debra Cox? She wet herself when they did her song, and I will be honest I don’t think that I have ever heard her song before so I can’t tell if they did a good job. The guy on the right seems to be the “Bad Guy” of the bunch but these kids need that.
I have watched both episodes so far. I am giving it until #4 before I bail. But, I am close to it.
I might watch the final episode, I am sure that the CBC will bring out two Mounties to present the winner with the prize. That is sort of how we do things here.
Why why why? Why does this country insist on making a fool of itself when it comes to television?
CBC is a joke. I couldn’t even stand watching the promos for this show before it even aired and didn’t even bother to watch when it aired.
The band and song selections were so predictable it made me sick.
Whatever. This is another show from a network and people that think a total idiot like Ron James deserved his own show as well.
Canada … Please stop making it worse to be here than it needs to be.
We caught the second one & not bad…Some of them can actually sing, some are tone deaf for harmonies…but still going to be there next week? Actually enjoyed the rap/singer combination, and don’t normally like rap. THEY were kicked off…so they need train wrecks to go on I guess?
Agree the host person was so loud it was obnoxious…so…
Doesn’t anyone read these online postings?