Eye had a contributor opine on CBC Newsworld's The Hour. He was not that complimentary.

An excerpt from Adam Nayman's piece:

During his time with MuchMusic, (Hour host George)Stroumboulopoulos was the channel's most mature onscreen presence, which is to say he delivered his broadsides against Britney Spears with admirable pep and did his best to look pained when interviewing random pop tarts, reserving the probing queries and friendly backslapping for respected alt-rockers. But it was his work on last year's highly rated CBC series, The Greatest Canadian, that likely convinced higher-ups that he was the man who could attract a much sought-after post-adolescent audience while maintaining the network's ostensibly high journalistic standards.

They may have been half right: the aggressive advertising blitz for The Hour has made it difficult to go anywhere in Toronto without seeing George's soulful eyes peeking out from behind ad copy promising edgy, hard-hitting news. The show's website (www.cbc.ca/thehour) features a more relaxed portrait and, more amusingly, an "inside" explanation of how a fuddy-duddy network like the CBC was able to attract such a dynamic young tyro. "The truth," it reads, "is that CBC Newsworld wanted his 'no-BS attitude'!"

Yet BS seems to be the show's organizing principle. From correspondent segments that play like pale imitations of The Daily Show (admittedly not a bad model if you're trying to please cynical teenagers) to ill-conceived features like "The Battle of the Bigots," in which three unfunny Toronto comics essay their respective religions' homophobic attitudes, The Hour's attempts at "infotainment" fall flat.

Stroumboloupoulos' actual interviews are good. He's quick on his feet and seems to be reasonably well-informed, and his Jan. 27th interview with CBC correspondent Joe Schlesinger -- who related the circumstances of his youthful deliverance from Germany during World War II -- was moving and tactful. Unfortunately, less than half an hour later, George's next guest, Pauly Shore, related his own harrowing experience of jerking off in the green room before the show.

And therein lies the biggest problem of The Hour: its frustrating inability to balance its host's strengths -- trenchant(ish) pop culture commentary and a healthy amount of hipster gravitas -- with the demands of being a nightly news program and an adequate lead-in to The National at 9pm.