For years, CBC has raked in far more hardware at the Gemini Documentary, News & Sports Gala than its private broadcaster counterparts. That shouldn’t come at all as a surprise – the Ceeb produces the biggest volume of Canadian programming and has long excelled in news, doc and sports shows.

Nonetheless, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, which produces the Gemini Awards, has taken seriously allegations that the Geminis reflect a pro-CBC bias due to the number of its employees who vote on the prizes, and so it recently overhauled its voting procedures in consultation with CBC, CTV, Global and CHUM.

‘We made three major changes,’ explains ACCT vice chair and former CTV president and COO Trina McQueen. ‘First, we moved to a jury system to select the winners. There is no longer any Academy-wide news voting. Second, we enriched the jury system by bringing in journalists from other media and newsmakers such as politicians and public figures. Third, we made the system more transparent. We won’t say which jurors handle which categories, but every news juror has been approved by all four broadcast news organizations.’

So, did these changes to the voting system have any impact on CBC’s long-standing dominance in the docs, news and sports categories? Well, the pubcaster picked up 59 nominations this year, up nine from one year ago.

‘The changes in the voting system haven’t hurt us at all, but at least they should put to rest any charges that the nomination system was somehow biased in our favor,’ says Tony Burman, CBC News editor-in-chief.

CTV, meanwhile, received 21 nominations for docs, news and sports, including those garnered by its specialties TSN and Discovery Channel. For its part, Global received two noms in this section – for best news special event coverage and news anchor, both attributable to Global National anchor and executive anchor Kevin Newman and his staff.

‘We’re still the new guy in town,’ Newman says. ‘It’s important for us to be included in this club, and so I never take it for granted when we get nominated for the Geminis.’

Meanwhile, CHUM, while not a national network, also picked up a couple of noms: Naked in the House ’03 from digi Fashion Television Channel, is up for performing arts/arts doc program or series, and Citytv’s CityPulse at Six made the cut for best newscast.

Noms for best newscast and news special event coverage are shared among public and private casters. However, in the information programming categories, CBC, with such a high dose of such shows, predictably dominates. Four of the five noms for best news magazine segment went to CBC News, with the fifth going to CTV’s W-FIVE. CBC News grabbed all five noms for best direction in a news information program or series.

Yet, all whom Playback contacted say they are pleased with their Gemini noms, including Robert Hurst, president of CTV News, which picked up 13 noms for docs, news and sports.

‘We were very happy,’ says Hurst. ‘We received multiple nominations in some categories. For instance, our reporters Avis Favaro, Janis Mackey Frayer and Lisa LaFlamme are all nominated for best reportage.’

At sports channel TSN, VP programming and production Rick Chisholm is elated with his group’s half-dozen noms, including best host or interviewer in a sports program or sportscast (James Duthie, NHL on TSN Pre-Game), best sports play-by-play or analyst (Pierre McGuire, NHL on TSN), and best live sporting event (Paul McLean, CFL: Wendy’s Friday Night Football: Saskatchewan at Hamilton).

‘It certainly proves that TSN, as a specialty network, is on a level playing field with CBC when it comes to quality coverage,’ Chisholm enthuses. His only regret is that TSN doesn’t have access to sports mega-events such as the Olympics, the Stanley Cup Finals and the Grey Cup, which remain CBC’s exclusive turf.

For its part, specialty Discovery received two docs, news and sports noms – for best direction in a doc series (Gary Lang, Forensic Factor) and best sound in an info/doc program or series (Emil Jany, Frontiers of Construction).

‘We’re particularly proud of the nomination for Forensic Factor, because it was produced by Exploration Production, our in-house production arm,’ says Shannan LaMorre, Discovery’s director of program planning.

All told, CBC continues to dominate the Geminis in these categories, although CTV is very competitive in certain areas. A deuce of nominations for Global, with its particularly strong emphasis on U.S. entertainment programming, is scant by comparison.

The Gemini Documentary, News & Sports Gala will be presented at the National Trade Centre in Toronto’s Heritage Court on Saturday, Dec. 11. Current CBC Movie Night in Canada host Ron MacLean will serve as emcee. The ceremony will be broadcast on local Rogers Television on a date that had not been announced by press time.

-www.cbc.ca
-www.ctv.ca
-www.canada.com/globaltv
-www.chumlimited.com