associated press photo
George Stroumboulopoulos, above, and Sook-Yin Lee, below, could compete for a shot at crashing in Rideau Hall in Ottawa as Rick Mercer (bottom) acts as show host, our columnist suggests.
NEED A JOB: If you think every day of your life should be like the last five minutes of Project Runway, the CBC announced yesterday that they’re holding open auditions to replace Tim Blanks, who’s retiring as host of Fashion Files after 17 years. The open audition is being filmed for a reality show, Fashion File: Host Hunt, which will air this January, after 10 finalists are chosen and flown to Toronto to compete for the job.
Today is the last day for auditions in Vancouver, at the CBC’s Hamilton Street offices, after a round of open casting calls in Halifax, Montreal and Calgary. Toronto hopefuls can take their shot next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Corp’s Front Street West headquarters. Details are available on the show’s website, fashionfile.com.
“Travelling the globe to bring viewers the buzz on trendsetters and fashion newsmakers,” reads the press release, “the new host will take viewers backstage to meet celebrated designers and inside the hallowed halls of design houses such as Gucci, Chanel and Prada. But more than that, the new host must be able to translate what the designers are presenting on the runways and explain the trends so that viewers can achieve the looks on a budget they can afford.”
If this works, would it be too much to imagine trying to fill vacancies in front of the news cameras and behind the anchor desk on Newsworld this way, or filming the casting competitions to fill an empty chair next to Don Cherry during hockey games? (I already have a title: Cherry-Picking. Nice, huh?) Let’s take this even further — maybe the leadership race for the federal Liberals would look less like a fixed race at a broken down dog track if they opened up the field and filmed it all.
The border between the national broadcaster and the federal Grits has been blurry for years, so it would be a natural fit; the job description for Governor General seems to require at least a decade of on-air experience at the Corp, so why not set Ian Hanomansing, Sook-Yin Lee, Evan Solomon, Jeannie Lee and George
Stroumboulopoulos against each other for a shot at crashing in Rideau Hall for a few years, overseen by Rick Mercer and Gavin Crawford? Canada, are you ready for Survivor: Gatineau Hills?
Think of it this way: It’s not that we’re putting our democracy up for sale — we’re just trying to get it better ratings.
