The Last Hours

What's coming up this week on The Hour, you ask? More re-runs? Alas yes, it's true, but fret no more friends....this is the LAST week for them & the last week for the show formerly known as:
The Hour

Monday, Sept. 13
Ugh, what can I say? It was a Monday

Tuesday, Sept. 14
Singer Rosanne Cash, director Kevin Smith & actress Saoirse Ronan

Wednesday, Sept. 15
Actor Bruce Greenwood, comedian Danny Bhoy & hip-hop group Cypress Hill

Thursday, Sept. 16
Actor Jay Baruchel, director Jacob Tierney & musician Rufus Wainwright

Friday, Sept. 17
Actor Christopher Plummer & actor Jake Gyllenhaal

Tune in next week for a blast of freshness!
New Website: Sept. 19th
New Season: #7 to be exact - Sept. 20th
New Name: George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight
New run-time: 30 minutes
New interviews: Fresh from TIFF & pre-tapes
New set? Yes, according to my TO gals
New hair? Tune in to check
New piercings? Only George can say

Finishing off 2009 in Strombo style...

Happy Holiday Season to all & may the end of 2009 hold relaxation & mellow reflecting on another year gone by. Easier to attain then you think:

From the Facebook group, The Strombo Show:
"Anyone listening in strange wintery places?
Dare we say, an All-Country Sad Off tonight? Bob is in with his Saddest Country songs.
The Strombo show continues with our last show of 2009.
8pm- Midnight All Across Canada.
Saving Radio 2. (That's a joke)
Commercial Free.
Fife Master's, Parisian hipsters, Twins and Love and... Porn are just some of the things we will be serving up tonight."
Stream Online http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/
Radio Frequency http://www.cbc.ca/frequency/
Mobile Application http://www.cbc.ca/mobile/iphone/

The Hour's shows for Dec 28 - Jan 1

Mon, Dec 28

Michael Moore, Nickelback, Morgan Freeman

Tues, Dec 29

Howie Mandel, Michaelle Jean, Stephen King

Wed, Dec 30

Andre Agassi, Jimmy Carter, Drew Barrymore

Thur, Dec 31

NYE SPECIAL ~ Featuring Al Gore

Fri, Dec 1st ~ Repeat: NYE SPECIAL

Don't forget, if you didn't get a chance to see The Hour's Holiday Music Special you can watch it on their site: cbc.ca/thehour
AND.... if there's any tracks from the show that you can't do without, you can download them HERE.

Happy New Year's Everyone!

The Hour will continue the season with brand new shows, starting on Mon, January 4th, 2010.

The Week According to The Hour

Fully enjoying Season Six & enjoying the subtle differences, myself, I wonder if you are too? Some of you have commented on some of the changes....are there things you enjoy more; wish they still did; or are you just going with the flow?


The Hour's upcoming guests:

MONDAY OCT 19

Leaf's GM - Brian Burke
'The Cider House Rules' author - John Irving

TUESDAY OCT 20

Canadian journalist, broadcaster & novelist - Linden MacIntyre
Actor - Peter Sarsgaard
+ Battle of the Blades eliminated pair.

WEDNESDAY OCT 21

Microsoft CEO - Steve Ballmer
The one & only - Snoop Dogg

THURSDAY OCT 22

Real Time's - Bill Maher
Actress - Vivica A. Fox

FRIDAY OCT 23
Catherine O'Hara, Nick Hornby, Drew Barrymore

It Aint Over, Till It's Over.....Re-runs that is.

Limber up my friends, limber up...
Almost finished with the re-runs & soon your boyfriend will once again, join you in your living room for your 5 nights/week, rendevous.
(And lets face it....there's not many boyfriends that dedicated!)

If you can't wait that long & you're in the TO area, there may still be tickets left for pre-tapings:
Monday September 14th - Ed Norton, Michael Moore & Anna Kendrick -10:15AM
Tuesday September 15th - Timothy Olyphant - 10:00AM
Tuesday September 15th - George Romero - 12:30PM
Tuesday September 15th - Alice in Chains, Snoop Dogg - 4:00PM

The highly anticipated Season Premiere of The Hour is September 28th, which will be a 1-hour special with Michael J. Fox.

Regular studio tapings with a live audience will then begin on:
Tuesday, September 29th.

For those of you who have been hearing rumours of The Hour in Dublin:
Info regarding the Guiness contest and Ireland is still to come...things are still being worked out.
(A huge Thank You to Jeffrey P, for taking time to help out & keeping our readers in the loop!)
On The Hour ~ Sept. 14 -18
Mon, Sept 14

Tom Cruise

Tues, Sept 15

Tim Robbins & Ricky Gervais

Wed, Sept 16

Diana Krall, Lewis Black, Bruce Greenwood

Thurs, Sept 17

Larry King, Steve Earle, Paul Potts

Fri, Sept 18

Sarah Palin, Marlee Matlin, John Legend

Bowie sang about changes

Carlo Rota GS & Carlo


I went to a pretape today with guest Carlo Rota of Little Mosque and 24. I got to take his picture and shake his hand. He is very nice in person. He had some very interesting and amusing stories to tell. I can't say the audience turn out was large for a Sunday so getting personal time with the guest is not always possible. If you can't see The Hour taping at the regular time keep an eye out for the changes in the taping schedule to see George Stroumboulopoulos at work at odd hours. In this case Sunday morning.

The Hour has made a few changes to the set. They removed the entire section of set that held the shelves and table. They placed chairs in the empty area bringing the audience closer to the host's chair.


Those old chairs have been replaced by orange-red leather chairs that look firmer and cleaner.
New set Old Set The difference it makes A small but happy audience


The Studio's seating maximum capacity is now 110 seats. No view is obstructed by that table now. The long runway extention of the stage remains for practical reasons... the camera swings overhead in that area and would be a danger to anyone sitting below. It also brings George closer to the middle of the audience when he makes his closer... I am hoping at least they bring back the closer as a regular feature again.


Coming up on Tuesday September 11th The Hour will be broadcast at 9 PM on CBC for a one hour PrimeTime special focused on the news of the Toronto International Film Festival. I know George is very busy doing interview after interview with the Directors, Writers and Actors that are in town for this event.