Top Canadian Female Sportscasters

Still waiting for baseball to figure out who will make the playoffs and see how the new Wild Card system will work. No pro hockey of yet and no sign that we will be seeing it anytime soon. I figured that this would be a good time to give a look and a look back at some of the faces that you may see feeding you the scores, the highlights and the video and the audio of whatever sports or teams that you follow here in Canada. I did a list back in 2009 and you will see some familiar names on that one that are still on the list today and some that have been bumped. It is becoming more regular that you can find a  female anchor on a sports show and that is good. It helps that most that are on air are good at what they do and cover sports and present them well. Here is what Canada is bringing to this party.

Because this is a Canadian list there is a small sample size to pick from. It seems that it is much easier to find good pictures of their American counterparts. Partly because the number of woman with big time duties on TV in the USA have gone up, but the skill level is better then ever. In addition, the limited number of national sports channels limits the scope of this list. The one good thing is that for the most part the 10 is a very solid top 10 so that says something for the quality of the depth.

This is a very subjective list as there is no specific criteria for the ranking system. I am factoring in their physical appearance. Superficial, absolutely, but they are on TV, a visual medium so that counts for a lot. Also there is little worse then a badly called sports highlight (And...Boom goes the Dynamite) so ability carries some hefty weight as well.

And right off the bat we have a tie for 10th -  I didn't want to have to do this but I could not justify leaving either of these ladies off. So without further Ado, let's do this thing.

10 Sophia Jurksztowski - The Score
Although I have only seen her set up a Live update She makes the list if not strictly for good work but I dig the cool name.

10 Alyonka Larionov - TSN
Alyonka is only on every now and again for special coverage and very less important features. She is not a regular and is probably not as polished and will not be seen on the 11pm SportsCenter anytime soon. The Daughter of former KLM line member and Red Wing Igor Larionov may not be at the level of an anchor person but it would be wrong to not allow her onto this list.

9 Sara Orlesky - TSN
Sara is not on the desk very often and is more a sideline-field reporter. She does a good job and is very knowledgeable. She has fallen back after being on the podium in my original list but that is mainly due to he not being as front and center and not getting as much face time.

8 Laura Diakun - The Score
I like her work on the updates. She too has a cool name. Seems to know her sports well and of course fits the other criteria that allows her to excel on TV as opposed to radio. Pretty much everything on her profile on The Score website impresses me as well. I too agree that even though Jim Thome is a sure bet Hall of Famer he is still under rated and he was the first baseball player to send back an autographed card that I sent him

7 Holly Horton - TSN
I still concider Holly as the dark horse in my list. When she had just started, she very raw and her ability was questionable. Over time she have become a first rate anchor, her delivery and knowledge is top notch and she managed to get more attractive which is a nice bonus.

6 Martine Gaillard - SportsNet
Martine has fall on the list pretty much for 1 reason. Haven`t seen her on TV in a long time. When on camera she is top of the class but when MIA she has to expect to be knocked down a peg. She was great at the Score oh so many years ago and did a good job on SportsNet even when the failed loosey goosey hip approach they tried on Connected. Get he back on the anchor desk and she will be promptly promoted. Knows her sports and seems to be a legit fan of sport.

5 Jennifer Hedger - TSN
Jennifer was off for a bit so that didn`t help her. She is still top of the class and her too, like Martine can move up given more airtime and given the freedom to flex her sports knowledge and delivery doing highlights and news.

4 Natasha Staniszewski- TSN
Natasha is the newbie but had cracked the top 5 earlier then I would have thought. She is a very beautiful lady but also does a good job calling whatever sports highlights she is given. She seems to be getting more airtime and that is only helping her case for this type of rating. I am a big fan of her work.

3 Evanka Osmak- SportsNet
Evanka has come a long way from her start and has become a solid sportscaster in her own right. She has dropped a bit but it was nothing that she did. It just came down to a numbers game and she was forced out. Still there is no shame with a podium finish. Bronze is nothing to shake a stick at.

2 Renee Paquette- The Score
This was a tough one as her body of work is still a little raw but natural ability has vaulted her into a silver medal. The work she does on Aftermath is the main reason she is as high as she is on this list. Renee is very attractive and like I said on a superficial list like this counts for a lot but the fact that she brings legitimate interest and knowledge to such things as WWE wrestling gives some major bonus points. It is one thing to be hot, another to be hot and like sports but to do both and add to that an interest in wrestling...rare and impressive. Renee is now doing Score Live and does a good job, especially when forced to work with that Cam Stewart guy ( I am not a fan, kinda wish he was still just on the radio that I did not get and has since stopped broadcasting). For that, even more bonus points are awarded. I am sure ones Rogers takes over she will continue to see good on camera roles.
UPDATE: Renee is leaving the Score and is joining the WWE - Still not going to change the list, she earned the silver and there she stands, With that said she will be missed and I am thinking that I will not be watching Aftermath too often anymore.

1  Kate Beirness - TSN
The true underdog story, and I kind of surprised myself when I was ranking each on the list. At first glance I would not have had Kate this high but the more I thought of it the higher up the rankings she went. Perhaps more of a Mary-Ann type (Gilligan`s Island reference for those who may have missed it) but pulls it off admirably. A very attractive looking lady but the real reason that she is where she is is her on air ability. That put her over the top. She does a great job on the anchor desk and is pretty entertaining as well. A great combination and worthy of the crown.

Sportsnet ONE to launch on August 14

Here is the storey on Sportsnet regarding their new channel... I will give my opinion on this soon but in the mean time read this and gear up for more live sports...It may not be ESPN but it may be a start or at least an improvement.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/one/

Sportsnet ONE to launch on August 14

Canadian sports fans will have another channel -- and hours of more live sports -- to choose from when Sportsnet ONE launches on Aug. 14.

More than 800 hours of live sports programming -- featuring the Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto Raptors and Barclays Premier League soccer -- will be available to viewers across the country, the bulk of it in high definition, on the 24-hour national sports digital channel.

Also scheduled to be broadcast are other MLB games, including the Seattle Mariners, and various NBA games.

"We know there is an incredible appetite for live-event sports, and we plan to fulfill that need," Doug Beeforth, president of Rogers Sportsnet, said Tuesday. "We are confident that Sportsnet will be a must watch for Canadian sports fans, and a great addition to the sports broadcasting landscape in Canada."

Sportsnet ONE launches Aug.14 at 12 noon, beginning with a Barclays Premier League match featuring defending champion Chelsea and West Brom, followed by a 4 pm ET / 1 pm PT MLB game and then the Blue Jays vs. Los Angeles Angels at 9 pm ET / 6 pm PT.

"Sportsnet ONE is the perfect complement to our four regional channels," said Beeforth. "We have established a reputation for live events on Rogers Sportsnet, and Sportsnet ONE continues that tradition."

Rogers Media, which owns Sportsnet ONE as well as the existing four Sportsnet channels (East, Ontario, West and Pacific), received approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a category mainstream sports channel license in March. Sportsnet ONE will be a national channel with the ability to broadcast regional content.

3D TV- The Future Of Sports Viewing?

There already looks to be a new wave coming to the way we not only enjoy TV and Movies but also the way that we will be able to watch sports. Just when you begin to get a taste of HD and see how superior it is to the SD that we have been accustom to they decide to take it one step further. Samsung and Panasonic will start selling 3-D TVs in U.S. stores this week, inaugurating what TV makers hope is the era of 3-D viewing in the living room. Samsung Electronics Co. announced Tuesday that it is selling two 3-D sets. Combined with the required glasses and a 3-D Blu-ray player, the prices start at about $3,000 for a 46-inch screen. Now this is just at the inception of the technology and it is very limited to the content that would be available right now but is it worth getting now if you are in the market for a TV now? Hard to tell, it is always an issue be the first to upgrade, the first of anything is a risky proposition. Bugs and issues have yet to be found or worked out and you never know if it will catch on (see BetaMax, Laser Disc or DVD HD).

The 3-D effect will require the viewers to wear relatively bulky glasses. You will need to have multiple glasses as well because they need to be recharged and you are going to always want to have a pair ready to go and also have enough if you ever have company over. They’re not like the cheap throwaways that have been used in theatres since the 1950s or available in a box of Lucky Charms Cereal. When you’re wearing these 3-D TV glasses, room lights and computer screens may look like they’re flickering, making it difficult to combine 3-D viewing with other household activities.
From all accounts though, I have heard reports from people who have seen NFL games in 3-D and they have said it is like being at the game...but better because you have better angles, viewpoints and of course convenience. The only thing it can’t give is the atmosphere of the crowd. It is supposed to be so good that it may be too good and may take away from fans wanting to go to games live and just take it in on their own home theatre system. ESPN has said it will start a channel that will broadcast live events using the technology, starting with FIFA World Cup soccer in June. I know this may be a bit of a deterrent to the technology as people may want to check out soccer in 3-D, but that would mean that they would be forced to watch soccer. I can only imagine that a lot of those special glasses will be tossed at those TV’s enraged by unwatchable soccer.

What Grinds My Gears!!

Now I know that I may be "sampling" the title from a few sources including another blogger but in a case like this I think that it is not only warranted but may even be embraced.

You know what Grinds My Gears? You CBC and CRTC ... F#^% You - When the Toronto based CBC shows a crappy Leafs Game in HD and not the Ottawa-Montreal game I get a bad taste in my mouth.

The Montreal Canadians are playing the Ottawa Senators on a Saturday Night. This is good, after all it is Hockey Night in Canada. What is better then the most successful team in NHL history versus another great Canadian team from our Nations Capital? I can tell you what it should be and that is the availability of the game being shown in HD. This is the most ridiculous thing I have seen in some time. What game does the CBC decide to show...the NY Rangers and the WINLESS Toronto Maple Leafs.

So when you have 2 Canadian teams facing off that are not only divisional rivals but separated by a mere 200 or so kilometers on a Saturday night, on a Canadian network and you show a winless team who is in such a bad place right now that their practices now consist of playing dodge ball on the ice with tennis balls.

What just made things worse, just this second... they were just interviewing Tomáš Plekanec and it was Cassie Campbell conducting the interview. Yeah, I was just robbed of seeing Cassie in High Def.

Ok, sorry, back to the issue at hand. I was recently notified by Bell that I am now going to be charged monthly for a local television fee. First off there is no "local tv" they don't even have the Ottawa CTV on my satellite, I get the news and like Regional Contact or something on some alternate channel. All the other "local programming" is simulcast programs from American networks. That is a far cry from local. If I am going to be charged for local programming, which I am already paying for I would think that a Senators-Canadians game should apply. I don't think that is too much to ask. I have had a big issue with the CRTC and how limited the options are when watching sports and getting sports channels and it is just getting worse. It is just like having games blacked out. I know that that is partly the sports leagues bylaws but I still think that if I am paying for Sportsnet West and there is a Flames-Oilers game I should have the right to watch it.

AND THAT IS WHAT REALLY GRINDS MY GEARS

Rodney Dangerfield Gets More Respect Then The NHL

Could you ask for any less respect then what NBC is giving/has given to the NHL and the Stanley Cup Playoffs? They force the league to play 2 games back to back for the first time since the 1950’s. They have them start the series with virtually no rest for the teams who earned the right to play for the cup. They only show the first 2 games at which point they decide to hand over the broadcast to Versus for games 3 and 4. These are usually critical games when trying to decide a champion so one would think they would want to show that. Being on Versus where all year they struggled to get people to tune in. 1) because it was hard to find and 2) because it was so limited to how many subscribers actually had access to the channel through their cable or satellite providers.

While game 3 was being played, somewhere in the states on a channel nobody knows exists NBC was airing an episode of "I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" and a non time sensitive special on Inside the Obama White House. NBC can not claim that it had any better programming that forced the games out of a prime time network time slot, there was no need for these shows to be on instead. They caught a break that Pittsburgh won game 3 and prolonged the series at lest enough for one more weekend broadcast.

Can you imagine if FOX decided to put the World Series on FX because they wanted to show an episode of "I Want To Mary A Millionaire" and an old rerun episode of the X-files. People would be up in arms. Maybe if CBS decided to put the Super Bowl on the Food Network instead (football... tail gating it is a perfect mix). It would never happen. Partly because the leagues wouldn’t bend over like the NHL does, actually respects the league and the game and because they actually pay to broadcast these games where as the NHL gets virtually no money and little or no exposure from NBC and Versus coverage. For the greater good it looks like the league needs to go crawling back to ESPN and pray that they can get something...anything and not come out looking like amateurs.

Hockey on TV In The USA Still The Red Headed Stepchild

Saturday the NHL is on NBC again for their game of the week broadcast. Just the sounds of that takes us back to the early days of cable when that is what you would get is a Baseball Game of the Week, Football Game of the Week, Basketball Game of the Week, heck even then you could only get The Superstars of Wrestling on at noon on a Saturday.

The funny thing about the NHL and the deal with NBC that pays the league just about nothing or may even charge to get on TV (which wouldn’t surprise me), is that in the event that the Capitals vs Penguins game goes longer then 1 overtime NBC will drop it in all markets except Washington and Pittsburgh to make way for the Kentucky Derby. This has happened before and it did not play well, especially to fans who didn’t know that they were going to do it.

I understand that the Kentucky Derby is a big deal in the States and as a rights holder they pay a lot and get huge ratings for it. They need to carry the event there is no doubt about it. We get that and know that it is all about money. Sure the likelihood in today’s NHL that a game would make it to double overtime is slim you just wish there was a better plan for the 2nd class sport in the US to be shown. It is hard to grow a sport and make it look important if you are willing to break away at the most exciting part of the game....sudden death...or sudden victory to the optimist.

You would think that with the amount of channels out there that 1 channel could at least pick up the feed or have it run uninterrupted on another "sister network". It is deals like this that make you almost wonder why the league bends over backwards for them. Even though we don’t get it in Canada it may be time to get it back on ESPN at least that way the chance of people stumbling upon it is there and they have at least 8 channels that they can move games to.

Changing Channels Not An Option In Canada

After my last post it has lead me to make a comment on the state of TV in Canada and the US as it relates to sports. Now I have little problems with Canada’s existing sports specific channels, those being TSN (The Sports Network), Rogers Sportsnet and to a lesser extent The Score but I want more. Being a Bell Express Vu subscriber I have a respectable selection of live sporting events to choose from. Now that TSN has come out with TSN 2 allowing for both the ability to show 2 live sporting events at the same time (in the winter usually either 2 hockey games or a hockey game and an NBA game or perhaps tennis, maybe even curling) nationally as well the ability for time shifting showing programming on a 3 hour delay to allow you to watch the complete games of both matches if you so choose or if you missed the original broadcast...a nice option o have. Sportsnet does well with regional hockey but shows far less live games as it used to when it held the rights to broadcast NBA games but makes up for that with most Jays games during baseball season.

Now where I have an issue again is with the CRTC and the fact that there is no way that I can get everything that I want. Sure I could pay in excess of $100 for different packages covering sports like NHL Center Ice, NFL Sunday Ticket, NASCAR Hotpass, MLB Extra Innings or the NCAA package but that adds up pretty quick and there is a lot of overlap of crappy games that I wouldn’t want anyway. No, what I want is more choice, more options and most of all more variety. I guess in an effort to preserve Canadian content there is no way to legally get the programming that I want and what I want shouldn’t be that tough to get. Give me the option of having ESPN(s), some of the Fox SportsNet channels, NESN, Versus, YES Network TNT among others. As a fan of watching volleyball I would like to have the option of watching some matches. NBC will show 1 match a week of the AVP tour but the rest of the tournament is not shown, nor are any NCAA indoor games. I understand why Canadian programming doesn’t pick up these games as it is a very niche market but if the games are being televised I would like to have the option to watch them. I don’t need it on a Pay Per View basis just let me purchase the entire channel as I would if it were a specialty channel in Canada. If it comes to a case of matching the numbers in a total package of Canadian to US programming so be it, I may be willing to taking on some crappy Canadian channels in order to keep the ratio where it needs to be. All I am asking for is the ability to choose, ability to watch what I want , and ability to get some different perspectives. The only channels made available in Canada show nothing but crap. They try to fool people with ESPN Classic Canada, but not ESPN Classics so we get Classic CFL games (if there is more of an oxymoron title i’d like to hear it) Matches on Fox Sports World shows Footy (soccer), rugby, Aussie rules football and things of that nature....not entertaining and a weak effort to show “World Sports”.

I want Wednesday Night Baseball in the summer, weekly NBA games, Volleyball games. It is being broadcast, I don’t think it too much to ask that I have a chance to enjoy it, whether I live in Canada or the USA.

My TV Was Hijacked By Canadian Government Pirates

So the Super Bowl is over for another year, the TV event of the year is over, but there is still an issue that needs to be touched upon and that is the TV coverage itself. Being in Canada there is an issue that arises and it is usually forgotten not long after the big game and that is the CRTC regulations that switch the feed that we get here. The game was shown in the US by NBC, the pregame started early on the network and continued through until the end, however what we got was NBC via CTV. CTV is a fine network but if I want to watch NBC I should be able to watch NBC. I have a satellite dish and even pay extra to have a second NBC western NBC and to not be able to watch it is annoying at best.

Part of the fun of the Super Bowl is getting to watch the new commercials that command in excess of $2.5-$2.9 million dollars for a 30 second spot. When, because of the switch of the feed we in Canada miss out on a good portion of them. One redeeming factor is that with the internet now we can see these online after but that is a minor victory. When I am watching the game on a clear TV maybe I don’t want to watch these commercials on a smaller computer screen at a lower quality later on. Maybe I don’t want to search to find this content and there is a pretty good chance that without a list I don’t know what to look for, which companies are advertising and where I can find the best quality ones.
Possibly the most aggravating issue is that the Canadian commercials that we get are Canadian Tire and Tim Hortons on a continuous loop. When they aren’t good in the beginning, repetition doesn’t make them better.

We were able to avoid this issue with the Olympics because CBC and NBC had in dependant coverage and their own crews (I understand the economics of the simulcast but it is all about choice) so it was separate and we were better for it as we had more choice

This isn’t just a Super Bowl issue as it happens not only for simulcast sporting events but for drama’s and sitcoms that are shown at the same time on both the US and Canadian channels. It is good that there are standards to keep Canadian culture and content on the airways but when you are paying for one thing having at least a choice would be nice.