This just in: The Score is making wholesle changes to its programming. In other news, the sun will set in the west tomorrow and there will strife in the Middle East.
Now, I may be off by one or two, but by my count this is about the ninth major format change at the specialty sports channel. Nobody can accuse these guys of standing still, that's for sure.
``If you're not moving, you're standing still," Score president John Levy said yesterday. ``If you're standing still, you're falling behind."
But if you're moving too fast, sometimes you fall down.
Unfortunately, the changes weren't made without spilling some blood. Nine Score staff were affected, with five losing their jobs. The others, Levy said, are being reassigned and some of those positions may change from full-time to part-time.
In addition, two shows will disappear -- sort of. The Score Tonight will be reduced from one hour a night to snippets and Hard-Core Hockey Talk will also be minimized.
As for the jobs, two on-air staffers are gone. Ten-year veteran announcer Tony Ambrogio and basketball host Nikki Reyes were axed along with three behind-the-scenes people.
It's never a good thing when people lose jobs, but Levy insists the moves have nothing to do with cost-cutting. They're about giving viewers more accessible news and features, he says.
The Score Tonight and the hockey show have been carved up into more digestible bites, he says. Sort of like serving tapas instead of main courses. Instead of an hour, they'll consist of quick hits sprinkled among Cabral Richards bits and Gerry Dee comic bites.
Other features, which Levy doesn't want to reveal right now, will be added in the fall.
As Ambrogio put it, this sounds like less news and more entertainment.
One of The Score's strengths is that it isn't afraid to take a chance. The live morning show never really had a chance to succeed, but I applaud Levy and company for trying.
It's possible the moves may be good ones. But from where I sit they take The Score farther and farther away from what it was and what it was supposed to be: news and highlights.
CFL RULES THE AIR
While the faltering Toronto Blue Jays are still drawing decent television audiences, they can't compare with the Canadian Football League.
Ever notice how "changes", in production, editorial or whatever direction pretty much always result in firings?
Posted by: Shanny | 07/29/2009 at 10:34 PM
Not good. I liked Tony Ambrogio and enjoyed Score Tonight. I haven't seen much of Nikki Reyes so I don't have an opinion on her, but it's sad to see her and the others lose their jobs as well.
Posted by: Jason | 07/30/2009 at 03:00 AM
Sid and Tim are the best evening recap show. Why are they messing with that? Thescore sure does it's best to prove they are a second rate TSN or even Sportsnet with all their moves.
Posted by: sinnacle | 07/30/2009 at 12:20 PM
This confirms it. Once my favourite channel, I will probably never watch The Score again. It was great to have an all news and highlight channel (like ESPN-News in the US), but now with over-exposed MMA fighting, nightly horse racing, too much soccer and gabling odds shows daily, this channel is a joke! Sid & Tim are the only good thing about The Score, and now their exposure is all but gone. Embarassing.
Posted by: gdr | 07/30/2009 at 12:26 PM
sinnacle: they were always a second rate sports channel, seems like they're now moving to third rate. If TSN2 improves a little, the Score will be fourth rate. Going down ...
Posted by: Tabber | 07/30/2009 at 01:09 PM
Truly a sad day for Sports Broadcasting in Toronto to see that Tim and Sid's show...the Score Tonight has been cancelled!
Terrible! This is the only sports highlight show I watch in Toronto. They were the only ones who cared about Basketball and were very enthusiastic about doing the highlights! All the other networks are too hockey centric basically discounting the viewership out there. They are the only true "Sports Network" in Canada Tim and Sid were a refreshing change from the stiff folks at the other sports networks!
I feel for Tony Ambrosio as well. Great guy! Nikki had a nice spot as well...at least she still has NBA XL. I think.
People are frustrated and sad at these firings and show cancellations as there are about 100 comments about it on RealGM! See the link below.
http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=933492&start=90
If you want send feedback to the Score...
here is the link.
http://www.thescore.com/scoretv/contact.aspx
Hopefully the Score will realize this is a terrible move and change their mind. Canada keeps chopping down their homegrown talent. It's very upsetting!
Posted by: Zaddups | 07/30/2009 at 02:01 PM
I used to watch The Score for about 3 hrs per week when they had their Sports World program each week day and the Friday night NFL preview show with Ron Meyer. After those shows I'd some times just leave it on. Other than 5 minutes here and there of The Footy Show I don't think I've watched anything on the channel for well over a year.
Posted by: Coisty | 07/30/2009 at 03:02 PM
the Score needs to get someone in there that has a clue...it is a news and highlights station period....thats it, they are attempting to make themselves into something they are not....why choose to compete with TSN and Sportsnet they had a niche' in the marketplace now they have nothing...
Posted by: doug | 07/30/2009 at 04:24 PM
So they are getting rid of the nightly sports recaps but are keeping the daily gambling show featuring degenerates telling us where they'll throw away money and show off how cool they are by swearing? Not a step in the right direction.
Posted by: Mike | 07/30/2009 at 06:00 PM
The Score was a dumb idea from the start. Whenever I watched, all they talked about was the NBA and baseball and US college sports. But looking at the weekly TV ratings for sports in Canada, you don't see much baseball(non Blue Jays) or NBA or US college sports in the top 10. If ever. They were preaching to a tiny audience, and the numbers proved it.
Posted by: JoeKnowsIt | 07/30/2009 at 06:16 PM
What the hell are they thinking? The only things worth watching on that channel (besides live NBA, NCAA and EPL oh and The Footy Show) were Hardcore Hockey Talk and The Score Tonight. Now it will be even more like watching a loop that repeats itself every 2 hours.
Get rid of Cabbie (lame compared to Gerry Dee), The MMA Show, and a whole bunch of other boring segments they have there.
Posted by: Joel | 07/31/2009 at 01:45 AM
Oh, and how could I forget that abominable duo of Cam Stewart and that despicable Morency idiot. Every time I see that pair on TV it makes me mad.
Posted by: Joel | 07/31/2009 at 01:49 AM
Agree, the Score's format is past it's due date. If you really want to see highlights when you want it, the web has taken over.
I believe they're hemmed in by their CRTC license, so we have a mish mash of live sports with news/highlights that satisifies very few. They need to get their CRTC license revised and go with live programming.
Then, instead of competing with sports that TSN or Sportsnet has, stay with basketball, Cdn & US university sports, EPL etc..Get rid of poker. Not sure what their ratings for horse racing are - but seems out of place. Yes, ratings will be mostly below 100k, but as TSN has done with their properties, they need to invest some money & need time to build it up.
Posted by: moosy | 07/31/2009 at 10:27 AM
Hardcore Hockey talk was the only reason I watched The Score, I'm sad to see its gone.
Posted by: andrew. | 08/01/2009 at 11:21 AM
These moves are clearly cost cutting measures, there's simply no way to sugarcoat it. Chris is being nice in "reporting" this news the way he did. Giving the axe to experienced sports executives like David Arrington and elevating the founder's son to the C-level ranks to make up for Arrington's departure should have been the last straw.
The CRTC should have some guidelines regarding cost cutting measures, I wouldn't be surprised if the score has cut 30-40% or more of their expenses over the past few years. Yet their subscriber fee I'm sure remains unchanged. Once ratings do not move resulting in higher ad revenues, the only way to boost the bottom line is to cut costs. Clearly if the CRTC was on the ball they would adjust their subscriber fee for the sub-standard programming that has resulted since the last determination was made on what "the score" should receive from subscribers.
Ironically enough, while watching the channel during my lunch hour in late June I was astounded to find there was exactly ZERO highlights. The entire one hour of filler featured such ridiculous segments as "court cuts" (old highlights of prior rounds of the NBA playoffs), a major league "firsts" segment featuring an endless stream of nameless players getting their first hits and other first milestones, a "live" segment outside the studio proudly standing in front of shoppers drug mart rambling about this and that and your standard Gerry Dee (Norm McDonald-wannabee) and Cabral Richards segments that along with court cuts and others have been aired endless times already over the course of the prior couple weeks.
The bottom line with this eyebrow raiser of a move that goes unnoticed is that as cheap as getting the sign off to air the highlight wheel for another hour is, it is less expensive to air this garbage as it was produced cheaply, in house and can be repeated over and over.
Truly a sad state of affairs for a channel that once held a true niche as a ESPNews clone.
Posted by: Lyn | 08/04/2009 at 03:12 PM
Made the mistake of tuning in tonight and strangely heard Sid Sixeiro doing voiceover/taped highlights of a soccer game featuring Greek side Olympiakos.
A player on this team has the name first name "Dudu", of course leading to the run of the mill pre-school type jokes. Not once, but twice did this happen: "Dudu 'Kaka's' that one (referencing the other soccer player with a similar name) and a second time "Dudu poo-poo's (that shot)". (It should be noted that unlike Kaka, this player actually has a last name that is commonly used in other professional coverage of the sport.)
Great work indeed.
Sure, talking heads can get a little too "creative" at times but I don't believe I've ever heard something so juvenile.
What's the cause of this?
The braniacs at the network probably need to find some work for Sixeiro after axing his nightly show and/or didn't want to pay one of the other more expensive soccer panelists (I guess former intern Sharman needs a day off) merely to do the voiceover.
Posted by: Lyn | 08/18/2009 at 11:46 PM