Hockey theme: CBC effectively told to "Suck it, Trebek"

How is this for irony? The theory going around is that snapping up the rights to two syndicated Ameerican game shows you can see eight times a day on U.S. channels greased the skids for CBC to lose an iconic piece of Canadiana, Dolores Claman's The Hockey Theme.

Those of you who got your Sunday Ottawa Sun know an awful truth.

"A well-placed league source told Sun Media what might have sparked the anthem move was CBC outbidding CTV for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! Both bring in huge audiences. The whisper making the rounds is the day after CBC secured those two valuable game shows ... network officials met to try to find a way to make their rival feel some pain. CTV officials knew that CBC was having a difficult time getting a deal done with Dolores Claman, who wrote and composed the HNIC song. That's when CTV jumped in and made her an offer she couldn't refuse." -- Bruce Garrioch

It is quite possible that is merely rumour. The fact remains that taxpayer-funded CBC, which is supposed to aspire to something higher -- that's why it shows reruns of Arrested Development instead of The King of Queens, people! -- sold out its principles. Importing Jeopardy! and frickin' Wheel, while cost-effective, goes against the CBC's mission. One need not worry if there was a direct cause-and-effect. It looks good on the network.



To quote Torontoist, "The song's not bad, but its win over 14,000 other anthems demonstrates that what the CBC—and, we guess, the Canadian public, who picked this song out of the final five— really wanted to replace one of our country's iconic songs was something safe, a little on the dull side, and more than a little generic. We're sure that CTV is pretty happy about the whole thing, though."