Melissa Grelo: The Cat Herder on The Social

ON SCREEN:

THE SOCIAL
CTV - Weekdays


The Cat Herder

Melissa Grelo Keeps The Talk 
On Track On CTV's "The Social"

By Eric Kohanik

It would be easy to lump The Social into a certain breed of talk show that has been growing on daytime TV.

But co-host Melissa Grelo doesn't want people to put CTV's new entry into the same paddock as ABC's The View or CBS' The Talk.

“We can use analogies and comparisons to The View all you want,” Grelo says. “But the reality is, we have a very distinctly Canadian perspective. A perfect example of that would be the gay-rights issue or, perhaps, the gun-control issue. These are issues that have a vastly different tone if you're talking about them north of the border vs. south of the border.

“And there's the fact that we've never had [on TV] a round table of Canadian women of varying backgrounds discussing the issues that matter not only to Canadians, but what everyone is talking about around the world.”

The Social airs live each weekday on CTV, with same-day rebroadcasts on CTV Two and E! The hourlong show features Grelo and her co-hosts – gossip blogger Lainey Lui, relationship expert Cynthia Loyst and entertainment reporter Traci Melchor – tackling each day's most talked-about issues, inviting viewers to join in via social media.

Grelo acts as the show's moderator, keeping the conversation going and keeping it on track. She often gleefully refers to herself as the “cat herder” on the show.

“We've got some very, very feisty, sassy women,” Grelo laughs. “This is exactly how everyone envisioned the show.”

Social media was also envisioned as a significant element on The Social. And, according to Grelo, that is where she and her co-hosts have an advantage.

“We are of that generation and we are definitely participants in this new world where people who are watching television are simultaneously on social media,” Grelo explains. “It's almost like one doesn't happen without the other. That's the centre point of our show.”

Of course, that can lead to some on-air juggling. But then, Grelo is no stranger to the demands of live TV.

Since 2008, Grelo has been the co-host of Toronto specialty channel CP24's morning show, CP24 Breakfast. She also co-hosted CTV's live Olympic Morning telecasts from Whistler, B.C. during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Add that to stints as a news anchor, fill-in host, reporter, entertainment correspondent and weather/traffic reporter and you quickly get the sense that Grelo can tackle any topic on The Social.

A self-confessed news junkie, Grelo didn't always see TV on her career path. In fact, she had set her sights on teaching at an early age. “I started teaching horseback riding when I was a kid,” Grelo recalls. “Teaching was something that came very naturally to me.”

After pursuing degrees in psychology and education, she embarked on a short stint as a teacher before shifting her focus to journalism. “For someone who's always been a news junkie, I never considered it a career,” Grelo confesses. “Then I realized, 'Wait a second, here's a very similar skill set.' I love writing. I love reading.”

And now, she loves combining her duties on CP24 Breakfast with her role on The Social – even if it means her days get pretty hectic. 

“It's insane,” Grelo concedes. “That's my middle name these days. But I'm so excited. It's something I've wanted to do for a really long time.

“I first talked to the network about a show kind of like this a couple of years ago. To actually see it happening, it's a dream come true.”

The Social - CTV - Weekdays 

(First published in Channel Guide Magazine - October 2013.) 

 

Breath of fresh airwaves at CHCH

ON SCREEN:
The resurgence of CHCH

ONLINE:
chch.com

Breath of fresh airwaves

On the verge of extinction two years
ago, Hamilton's CHCH staked its
future on news. It was a good move.

By Eric Kohanik

The Jackson/Hunter Street home of Hamilton TV station CHCH seem a lot happier and more upbeat these days.

“It’s nice to be at a place now that is expanding and growing and hiring, rather than one that is imploding,” confides Brian Wood, a veteran on-air personality. “I’m very pleased to see it like that — and to be still a part of it.”

“There’s a big difference now,” echoes camera/microwave operator Nick Garbutt, another senior staff member. “It’s almost like the old days. Being independent again, decisions get made right away, here rather than at ‘corporate.’ Because this is ‘corporate’ now.”

It’s been a little more than two years since a small, relatively unknown Toronto-based media company named Channel Zero Inc. breathed new life into CHCH, bringing the beleaguered station back from the brink of broadcast extinction.

According to figures obtained from CHCH, the station has 141 full-time jobs on its payroll now, roughly a 20-per-cent increase from the 117 full-timers in 2009.

Today, CHCH is healthy again, insists Cal Millar, Channel Zero’s president and chief operating officer.

“We’re really thrilled with how it’s going,” Millar explained during a recent telephone interview from his Toronto office. “The progress, over two years, has been fairly steady. It’s going well in terms of viewership.It’s going well in terms of the kind of programming we’re doing. It’s going well in terms of the team in Hamilton. It’s going well in terms of the new shows we’ve launched. It even went well in the digital transition, the million-dollar-plus investment we made in new transmitters across the province.”

Numbers from BBM, Canada’s ratings service, bear that out. CHCH’s 6 p.m. newscast often pulls in anywhere from 100,000 to 140,000 viewers per night in the Toronto-Hamilton extended market. Both the 6 p.m. and11 p.m. newscasts regularly beat out those from CBC, CP24 and Citytv. In fact, CHCH’s newscasts usually rank third, behind CTV and Global, and sometimes even outperform Global enough to land in second place.

And although the balance of CHCH’s schedule may not be breaking ratings records, the shows are managing to hold their own.

“We’re sustainable at this point,” says Millar. “Nobody’s getting rich over night, but we’re making money.”

The story of CHCH-TV has been one of tremendous ups and downs. “Lucky Channel 11” signed on the air in1954 as a CBC affiliate before becoming English Canada’s first independent station in 1961.

Building its fortunes and audience with a lot of local programming, the channel grew in popularity during the1960s and 1970s. In 1982, it expanded its horizons further, becoming a superstation distributed across Canada via satellite.

During the past two decades, increased competition and changes in ownership and on-air IDs — TV 11, ONtv, CH, E!, CHCH News — were accompanied by a steady stream of budget cuts and staff reductions that eventually gutted the station.

CHCH was on the verge of being shut down in 2009 when Channel Zero acquired it, along with Montreal’s CJNT-TV, from the bankrupt broadcasting division of what was then the Canwest media empire.The total cash price of the deal: $12 — which included an $11 price tag for CHCH.

“We had to pick a number for allocation purposes,” Millar recalls with a chuckle. “We thought it was so cool to buy Channel 11 for $11.”

In reality, the investment was substantially more. The deal saw Channel Zero assume the assets and, more significant, the considerable fiscal liabilities of both stations.

Sept. 1, 2009 the revamped CHCH was launched, with a new “Your Superstation” moniker and a new on-air look inspired by a logo from the past.

The relaunch also banked on a schedule heavily weighted with local news.

For the CHCH news team, it was an exhilarating vote of confidence.

“As you can imagine, there was a lot of excitement,” CHCH executive producer John McKenna said during an interview inside the station’s newsroom. “We were all thinking we were going to lose our jobs. Then, these guys came in and, suddenly, we were not an afterthought. We were the centre of their universe. Suddenly,we were important again.”

CHCH filled evening and weekend schedules with another throwback: classic movies that served as “comfort food” for viewers.

Last season, CHCH expanded its lineup to include such American programs as Chuck, Supernatural, 60Minutes, 48 Hours Mystery, 20/20 and Jimmy Kimmel Live. This fall, the American content grew some more with two new drama series — Hart Of Dixie and The Secret Circle — along with The Insider, a nightly entertainment-news show.

But CHCH has kept “comfort movies” as its evening/weekend centrepiece. It expanded local programming with this fall’s launch of Morning Live First Edition, a 90-minute show that hits the air weekdays at 4 a.m.

The new show means CHCH now airs 84 hours of local programming each week, a milestone the station trumpets as more hours than any other local television station in North America. Although ratings for Morning Live First Edition are still minuscule — about 1,000 viewers each day — Millar is willing to be patient. After all, he says, CHCH’s resurrection has really been a simple process.

“My analogy for a long time was that CHCH was like a tiara that somebody had painted with green paint,”Millar quips. “People thought it was just a plastic throwaway for years.

“All we did was kind of peel the paint off and go, ‘Wow! A nice gem!’

“There is no reason CHCH can’t be the juggernaut it has been in the past.”

The station’s overall reach certainly has that potential. As well as satellite distribution across Canada, CHCH has transmitters that beam its now-digital signal directly over the air into such markets as Ottawa, Windsor, London, Barrie-Orillia and Kitchener-Waterloo.

“We are in four million homes across Ontario and 7.5 million homes across Canada.

“But we also haven’t forgotten our roots. It’s a Hamilton station. It’s relevant from the Humber River to the Niagara River. If you want to call that the Golden Horseshoe, go ahead. But it’s centred on Hamilton.”

(First published in The Hamilton Spectator - November 5, 2011.)