The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 71

CULTURE E9 THE CAZETTE montrealgazette.com SATURDAY, JANUARY 26,2015 New morning show dawns at Global Montreal Station launches Monday with focus on community news nrThr Ci JL ja, -o---" --JL--ri hpy tig I 1 ii L(Mmiiljiin I 1 "-wn rr r--" i nnn rmim'innT i nirrniiiaiiniiiimnn iimim PHIL CARPENTERTHE CAZETTE show on-air team: Jessica Laventure, left, Richard Dagenais and Camille Ross at the station in STEVE FACUY THE CAZETTE It's less than a week until launch day and the Global Montreal office has a level of excitement it hasn't seen in years. The tiny office that hosts Montreal's least-watched local evening newscast is preparing to increase its daily television production by 300 per cent. That means new hires, new equipment and a lot of preparation to choreograph the intricate three-hour dance those workers and equipment will perform on a daily basis. On Monday, the station launches Morning News, Montreal's first locally produced morning show on English TV in five years. The show, along with a similar one launching the same day in Halifax, completes a promise that Shaw Communications made to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission when it bought the Global TV network in 2010.

The CRTC mandated that Shaw spend $45 million over seven years to launch and maintain local morning shows in six markets. That includes $5 million each for Montreal and Halifax, which are the last two to launch because they're Global's weakest majormarkets. They were originally planned to launch in the fall of 2012, "so we're behind but not terribly behind," said Troy Reeb, senior vice-president of Global News. "We wanted to find a formula where we find success in a market where we've traditionally found challenges," he said, reiterating that the plan is for the shows to make enough money to be sustainable once the special funding runs out. Morning News stars Richard Dagenais, a familiar face among Global Montreal viewers as the host of the 11 p.m.

newscast, and Camille Ross, who was a reporter for CTV Montreal. Joining them is weather specialist Jessica Laventure, who comes from a similar job as a morning host onMeteoMedia. "We met at the photo shoot," Laventure said this week of her co-stars, who have spent the past two weeks in rehearsals and have already developed some chemistry with each other. Dagenais was a regular feature of Global's previous local morning show, This Morning Live, which was cancelled in 2008. As a roving reporter, he got to do crazy, fun and sometimes even embarrassing things on air.

"When the alarm went off in the morning, I was like tr GTV Montreal maintains its dominance in the ratings race overall in Montreal's English market, even beating Canada's most-watched television show, The Big Bang Theory. CBC Montreal's 6 p.m. newscast was a distant second at 11,300 adult viewers or a 5.5 per cent share. Global Montreal is even further behind with only 4,100 viewers on average, good enough for a two per cent share. The ratings are about the same during other times, with CTV News having a 46 per cent share weekends at 6, a 52 per cent share weekdays at noon and a 37 per cent share at 11:30 p.m.

CBC Montreal. locally, by remotely controlling servers in Vancouver. A station with limited resources competing against the 50-year-old market leader CTV, Global has tried to outflank its competitor by focusing on community news, in particular the anglo-rich West Island. That will continue and even be enhanced with the morning show, though it won't ignore the big headlines. "I love the idea that we have the time to do all of these interviews that wouldn't necessarily make the half-hour or one-hour newscast," Ross said, like a peewee hockey team that just won a regional championship.

"I hope people give it a chance," Dagenais said of the show, which he warned might still be a bit rusty out of the gate. It won't have long to prove itself. The City network, which launches in Montreal on Feb. 4, is putting together its own local morning show, due to start in August. And both of them will have to work hard to wrestle away some of the 40 per cent market share held by CTV's Ttt-ronto-based Canada AM.

Morning News airs from 6 to 9 a.m. weekdays oo Global Montreal, starting Monday. sfaguymontrealgazette.com Twitter: fagstein Global Montreal's new morning day I get to go or 'today I get to go he said, explaining he doesn't get easily embarrassed and making a fool of himself "was great TV" Ross, originally from Toronto, worked as a reporter and anchor in Yorkton, and Regina before coming to Montreal to work as a reporter for CTV. The career advancement that Global's morning show presented was too good to pass up. "A chance to launch something brand new is a rare opportunity," she said.

"I love reporting. I love the hard news. With reporting, it's such a creative outlet. But also I feel like on the six o'clock news, viewers never saw me smile. It's always hard news." Laventure got her start as an editorial assistant here, moving to Quebec City at the suggestion of her boss.

"That's where I got my first on-air experience," she said. When that same boss, station manager Karen Macdonald, called Laventure to tell her she'd been hired for this morning job, "I felt like I'd come full-circle," Laventure said. "I told Karen: I feel like I'm coming home." Laventure will spend most of her time outside the studio, mainly at a still-undetermined location in the West Island, likely a restaurant serving breakfast, so that the show can connect Colossus Saturday 3:30, 7, 10:15. Sunday 3:30, 7. Monday, Tuesday 3:40, 7, 10:15.

Wednesday, Thursday 3:40, 9:50 Deux Montagues 625, 9:15. Late Show Saturday 12:05 a.m. PontVlau Saturday, Sunday 3:25, 9:25. Monday-Thursday 9:25 Spherotech 6:25, 9:15. Late Show Saturday 12:05 a.m.

THERESE DESQUEYROUX (C) French auteur Claude Miller's final film is, unfortunately, a rather plodding period drama about a woman stuck in an arranged marriage in pre-World War II France. 110 mins. BK In French BuuMmi Saturday-Thursday 10:15 a.am., 2:45,19:15 THIS IS 40 (13) Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprise their roles from Knocked Up in this dramatic comedy that attempts to take the mickey out of middle age. Director Judd Apatow's lowbrow humour leaves the script a little soggy. 134 mins.

KM Banque Scotia Saturday, Sunday 3:45, 6:45, 9:45. Monday, Thursday 12:45, 3:45, 9:45. Tuesday 12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:45. Wednesday 7, 10 TU MERA 22 MAIN TERA 22 (C) Not ravtowod If more programming from its competitors is threatening the long dominance of CTV Montreal, that hasn't showed up yet in the ratings. In data released to members this week by BBM Canada, the station's flagship 6 p.m.

newscast beat out its closest competitor by 10-1, capturing 119,000 adult viewers on average and a 57.6 per cent market share, meaning more than half of English Montrealers watching TV at that time were watching CTV News. Not only does that make it the top-rated local newscast, but the top-rated show on a personal level with its viewers in that part of town. (At least the ones who have nothing to do before 9 a.m. on a weekday.) She'll also be putting together packaged reports, similar to what Dagenais did onthe previous morning show. Otherwise, much about the show is still vaguely described.

It will have local news, interviews and information about the community, as well as regular contributors and columnists, though none have been an In Punabl with English subtitles Forum Saturday, Sunday 1, 3:50, 6:40, 9:35. Monday-Thursday 1:15, 4:05, 6:55, 9:50 ZERO DARK THIRTY (13) Director Kathryn Bigelow follows her Oscar-winning war film The Hurt Locker with this gripping account of the CIA's 10-year hunt for Osama bin Laden. Jessica Chastain shines as the determined agent who never gives up the chase. 157 mins. TD Banque Scotia Saturday, Monday-Thursday 1:30, 5, 8:30.

Sunday 12:30, 3:45, 8. Saturday 12:15, 3:40, 7:10, 10:45. Sunday-Thursday 2:30, 6, 9:30 Brmsard Saturday, Sunday 1:15, 5, 8:40. Monday 5, 8:45. Wednesday, Thursday 5, 8:50.

Tuesday 5, 8:40. Cavendish Saturday, Sunday 1:15, 4:45, 8:15. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 7:45. Tuesday 8:15 Colossus Saturday, Sunday 12:15, 3:40, 7:10, 10:45. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 1:30.

5, 8:30. Tuesday 3, 6:40, 10:15 Kirkland Saturday 12:30, 3:50, 7:10, 10:30. Sunday 3:25, 6:45, 10:05. Monday-Thursday 3:15, 6:30, 9:45 Lacordafra Saturday, Sunday 12:30. 3:35, 6:40, 9:45.

Monday-Thursday 6:40, 9:45 March Central 12:30,3:35.6:40,9:45 Sources Saturday, Sunday 12:30, 3:35, 6:40, 9:45. Monday-Thursday 6:40, 9:45 Spheretecfc Saturday, Sunday 12:30, 3:35, Montreal added weekend newscasts and expanded its late-night news in 2012, but both attracted less than a six per cent share. CTV also claims all of the top 10 shows in the Montreal English market, and 18 of the top 20. The ratings, measured based on written diaries submitted by a sample of television viewers, reflect audiences for four weeks in October and November, during which all three stations aired special reports during their local news to try to boost their numbers. STEVE FACUY movements of the cameras, is inserted behind them by computer.

"For me, spending lots of money on bricks and mortar is not really an important thing," Macdonald says of the reuse of the virtual set. "How we talk to our audience is way more important" The show will be directed from a new automated control room. Unlike its evening newscasts, which are controlled in Edmonton, Global Montreal's morning show will be technically controlled Argo, Sound City, 9:15. CINEMATHEQUE QUEBECOISE 335 de Maisonneuve Blvd. E.

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Saturday: Ice Age Continental Drift, noon, Hotel Transylvania, noon, Frankenweenie, noon, 3:05, Brave, 1:30, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, 1:35, ParaNorman, Playing For Keeps, 4:45, Intouchables (French with English subtitles), 6:15,9:05, The Master, Flight 7, Beasts of the Southern Wild, 8:10. Sunday, Monday: Ice Age Continental Drift, noon, Hotel Transylvania, noon, Frankenweenie, noon, 3:05, Brave, 1:30, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, 1:35, ParaNorman, Playing For Keeps, Intouchables (French with English at the movies nounced yet. Macdonald said the first half, from 6 to 7:30 a.m., will be more fast-paced, more newsy, with more interviews in the latter half. Dagenais is also hoping for regular musical guests, though that will depend; on whether it's technically practical to have them. The show's main set is virtual, just like the one for its newscasts.

The hosts sit in a room with green walls, facing only a pair of robotic cameras. The virtual set, programmed to change with the 6:40, 9:45. Monday-Thursday 6:40, 9:45 Taschereau Saturday, Sunday 12:30, 3:35, 6:40, 9:45. Monday-Thursday 6:40, 9:45 REPERTORY CINEMAS CINEMA DU PARC 3575 Avenue du Pare. 514-281-1900.

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