CBC’s countdown to the Greatest Canadian a TV highlight next week
(CP) – Who is the greatest Canadian of them all?
CBC-TV hopes, if not to answer that question officially, at least to stimulate a national debate, beginning this Sunday night and continuing twice weekly through to a late November finale.
Nearly 140,000 votes were submitted by the public last April and May in a premise copied from the BBC (Great Britons, in 2002, won by Winston Churchill). The CBC then selected the 50 figures with the most votes, and they will be whittled down to 10 on Sunday’s two-hour opening telecast (8 p.m. ET), hosted by Wendy Mesley. Then, each of the 10 contenders will be paired with a high-profile “advocate,” someone who will make an impassioned plea for his or her choice in a series of hour-long programs to air in the subsequent weeks.
The 10 include: MuchMusic personality George Stroumboulopoulos, Canada’s first Reform party MP Deborah Grey, former wrestler Bret (Hitman) Hart, author and professor Charlotte Gray, radio host and actor Sook-Yin Lee, TV comedian Mary Walsh, actor Paul Gross, journalist Evan Solomon, rocker Melissa Auf Der Maur and broadcaster Rex Murphy.
The first advocate episode airs Monday, Oct. 18, as Stroumboulopoulos fights for a “real rebel and a rebel WITH a cause.”
On Oct. 20, Gray will defend her nominee who she insists is the “greatest Canadian of them all, hands down, no brainer, game over.”
The one-hour advocacy specials will air each Monday and Wednesday (at 8 p.m.) with encore presentations on Newsworld Tuesdays and Thursdays. Viewers can vote after each episode (www.cbc.ca/greatest). Then the advocates regroup for a final pitch and debate in front of a studio audience on Nov. 28. On Nov. 29, the results are revealed.
“Far from a traditional biographical documentary, each of these advocacy programs is a truly impassioned, energetic tribute,” says co-executive producer Mark Starowicz.
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