CTV Olympic host Brian Williams: “I can’t wait”
February 3, 2010 · 15 Comments
After a four year absence, Brian Williams returns to the Olympics as host of CTV’s Vancouver prime time coverage.
He says, if anything, his enthusiasm has increased. And, of course, Vancouver, as Canada’s first domestic Games in 22 years, will be special.
“This is why I left the CBC,” he said in an interview. “I was very happy there. They treated me well. But, I’m 63 and I’m fortunately a young, healthy 63.
“And to do the Games in my own country and then to do London in 2012, I’m very much looking forward to it.”
Williams has spent months researching the Olympics and the international competitors, an assignment he says he enjoyed.
“It’s something that fascinates me. I have an Olympic library at home and I’m always reading. I was a history major at school. And having done 12 Olympics, one tends to prepare for the next one.”
Late last week, he checked into a Vancouver hotel which will be home until the Games are over. He is spending this week and next preparing for the two week coverage and particularly the telecast of the opening ceremony, which he will co-host with Lloyd Robertson of CTV News and former Olympian Catriona Le May Doan.
As prime time host, he will be on the air daily from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET. The eight hour shift is necessitated by the time difference between the Pacific and Eastern zones.
Two a.m. in the East, after all, will be 11 p.m. in Vancouver, where live events will still be taking place.
He says he thrives on the workload. And he raves about the quality of features CTV has produced.
“I’ve just seen the essay to open the pre-ceremony show on Friday and it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s almost theatrical. The ‘I Believe’ song, which Alan Frew wrote and Nikki Yanofsky sings, really is special.”
(The song is posted at the bottom of this piece.)
Williams notes that features are particularly important to the Winter Games.
“There aren’t that many events in the Winter Olympics. If, for example, alpine skiing goes down, you’d better be ready to dance, baby.”
CTV’s telecast is expected to be more tightly scripted than what we’re used to seeing on the CBC. Keith Pelley, the head of the CTV-Rogers Olympics consortium, came away from the Beijing Olympics impressed by NBC’s structured coverage.
Williams is more accustomed to working in a free wheeling, extemporaneous environment. He notes that a live production needs the flexibility to adjust quickly to breaking news.
“I think what Keith wants to do is take the best from everybody,” Williams said. “CBC did a wonderful job at Beijing, NBC did too. Yes, there will some scripting.
“But, listen, when you’re sitting there and the fur is flying, and you’re going live in 100 different directions, there is no time to script stuff.”
There will be plenty of breaking news to report, regardless of whether the Canadian team lives up to expectations or not.
A failure for Canada to win a medal on the first weekend will hurt CTV in terms of viewer enthusiasm and audiences for the first week. A gold medal would be a first for a Canadian athlete in a domestic Games. As Williams notes, the best Canada could do at Montreal in 1976 and Calgary in 1988 were silver medals.
How will Canada perform?
“I’m not saying Canada will win the most medals,” Williams said. “I’m hearing all kinds of weird predictions.
“But I think 26 would be a great success. It could be higher. Certainly Canada has a shot at winning the overall medal totals.”
Canadians won a record 24 medals at Turin, third behind Germany and the United States. So, a haul of 26 would mark an improvement of two.
(Sports Illustrated predicts Canada will win 30, 10 of them gold, second to Germany, 35.)
Whatever the count turns out to be, Williams says the Canadian athletes are insisting they will not be intimidated by playing in front of a home crowd.
“The athletes I talk to say, no, they welcome competing at home,” he said. “There is a new confidence.
“(Freestyle skier) Jennifer Heil, who could be Canada’s first medal winner on Saturday, said to me, ‘We’re no longer happy to show up in the uniform. Canadians are now showing up with the attitude that we’re here to do our best and that will be good enough to win.’ ”
A big part of Williams’ appeal and success over 40 years has been his snappy, emphatic commentary.
Beginning in 1984 as the CBC’s host at the Los Angeles Summer Games, he has never been reluctant to express an opinion.
He says some that attitude rubbed off from hanging out with veteran writers and broadcasters early in his career.
In 1972, he was sent to Moscow to cover the second half of the Canada-Soviet Union Summit Series.
He found himself mingling with some of the leading personalities in Canada’s sports media. This irreverent and occasionally unruly group included Jim Hunt of CKEY Radio in Toronto and Dick Beddoes of The Globe and Mail.
“Those guys were my heroes,” Williams said. “If people wonder why I’m outspoken, it’s because of them.”
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Great Olympics, but I must admit whenever Brian Willams came on I switched the channel. Can't watch him I also find his 'pointy fingers' and looking off camera at himself in the monitor SOOOOO annoying. There must be a younger hipper anchorperson they could find than this old codger.
Brian Willaims of CTV with with 'pointy fingers' – so annoying….get rid of that guy
HOW ABOUT YOU ALL QUIT TRYING TO BE POLITICALLY CORRECT WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS AND CTV DURING THESE OLYMPIC GAMES.
Prejudice? Please. This is CTV – look up that acronym, and then go hide in your corner feeling like an idiot. Do we have an obligation to recognize other nations' accomplishments during the Winter Olympics? <sarcasm> I'm sure other national newscasts are talking about Canadians winning medals </sarcasm>.
Did Brian Williams say that we "should be disappointed" with our medal count? Did he? Were those his exact words? Was it made incredibly clear – so clear that the nation is in an uproar over it? Reference/citation please.
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That's what I thought.
Perhaps you, J Pat, are the one who's disappointed with the Canadian Olympic team? Think before you speak. It works wonders.
I hope thus is current and shown to Brian Williams.
Brian you have earned 2 out of 10!!!
It is not critical that Canada has 8 medals and the USA has more just in Alpine.
You don't get it!!!!! You dismiss all other medal accomplishments but 'Gold'.
I am on the other side of the country and deeply engrossed in these Olympics. Like so many others we know that many Canaians have accomplished much in all aspects of these Games and you are sitting counting medals, telling us that we should be dissappointed!!!!!
A) Our teams have produced 'gold' on our soil but you continue to apply pressure and only count the medals!!
B) we have come just short several times but are certainly competitve and celebrate that. Do the comparisons!!! Great efforts!!!!
C) your irrelevant comparisons harm the head set threatening the future of financing for our teams.
D) Understand that being Canadian is being 'Bilodeau'. Caring, delivering your best effort, winning in all ways and getting the priorities right!!
Sorry, but you, Mr Wiliams, are so far the biggest disappointment of these Games: The Candian Athletes get Gold, You sir, DNF!!!!
Please get with the program!!!
NBC should send a thank you note to Brian Williams. Every time Williams comes on I immediately switch to NBC as I find Brian Williams so annoying. NBC is definietly getting a lot of viewers annoyed by Williams.
Disappointed to discover that Brian Williams would come with CTV coverage. I thought we'd be spared the condescending delivery with hand waving gestures that suggest he's really trying to tell us that he knows all this stuff and he'll try to help us understand. Unfortunately, his intrusions into the opening spectacle with his explanations here and there of how the illusions were achieved spoiled the illusions, a sad case in point. His "outspokenness" is reserved only for blatently obvious one-sided issues which he flogs ad nauseum. His "it's really all about me" mentality continues to grate.
The opening ceremony was splendid; the camera coverage of athletes performing is breathtaking; the colour commentary and interviews add a pleasant dimension. I watch CTV coverage because CTV does it well and split to non commentated Olympic Channels when the commentary becomes oppressive.
Brain Williams? It is total ignorant regarding an international sport. He is runing his own personal show and I am sick and tired of him. He is prejudice against some nation.
Facts: First medals that were given during Winter Olympic, Brian ignored it totaly. He quickly mention who took first and third place but totaly forget about the second place. Why…………………., ignorant and predjudis.
Canadian should see other nation beside themself. They call themself "multiculture nation" – slogan or propaganda???
Barbara
Brian Williams??? CTV??? Come on! As a sportscaster, Brian Williams is nothing but a childish old man. He really ticked me off in the 2006 Olympics when he kept cutting off Peter Mansbridge every time Peter spoke. He then, as a six year old child would do, stuck his tongue out at the camera (live), an act for which he later apologized. That just did me in for the rest of the Olympics. What a childish, childish old man! I cannot stand looking at him, nor can I stand listening to him. I was enraged when I heard he was on again this year. Please, please, make this his last year!!!
Viewer beware!!! The great Keith Pelley, who everyone is fawning over, was the genius behind such embarrassing flops at TSN while under his stewardship as 'Guys TV' and 'The Gallagher Show'. I'll be taking a wait-and-see approach to this coverage. They better hope the medals start flowing early, or the people will start turning off their sets, especially if the men's hockey team fails to medal, which is a distinct possibility. That won't make the advertisers very happy. As for Williams, I've always enjoyed his role as an actor playing a sportscaster. It's quite comical really!!!
I am not looking forwards to the schmarm attack of Williams. Knowledge ≠ delivery. Nor the Big made in China corporate sponsorship [Canadian mittens? I think not made in Canada].
I will watch some individual contests with the mute on – my choice of soundtrack – not more schmarm from Nikki….
I wonder if Brian Williams, the anchor for NBC Nightly News, will be in Vancouver with the other NBC personnel? And what if the two Brian Williams got together?
Leave it to CTV Globemedia to screw this up. Ben Mulroney over Karrin Lee Gartner, disgusting!
Williams probably is past his prime and is living in the 80s, but at least we will not be subjected to Ron MacLean and his endless idiotic puns and smarmy smirk.
Oh No! I hoped he had retired.
Watching the Olympics at home on TV and not hearing Brian Williams just would not seem right to me. Glad to see is planning to do the Summer Games in London as well.