Professor Idol

I would like to see the nominees for this:


TVO unveils 'Professor Idol'Last Updated Wed, 10 Aug 2005 16:59:58 EDTCBC Arts

First there was the singing contest Pop Idol. Then came spinoffs like Canadian Idol and American Idol. Now comes a series that could very well have been dubbed Professor Idol.

The aim of the show, which will air on TVOntario, is not to find the best singer; instead, the producers are scouring Ontario to find the best teacher in the province's post-secondary school system.

Titled the Best Lecturer Competition, it aims to find instructors "who explain their thesis clearly, are passionate about their topic, and share their views with conviction and flair."

"In other words, we are looking for the most engaging, entertaining, and enlightening lecturer in Ontario," said Wodek Szemberg, a producer with TVO.

The channel, a public broadcaster with a mandate to produce educational programming, announced the names of the 30 semifinalists on Wednesday.

They were chosen by a panel made up of Literary Review of Canada editor Bronwyn Drainie, National Post columnist Robert Fulford and playwright Andrew Moodie.

Among the finalists are Tim Blackmore (a Faculty of Information and Media Studies professor who teaches at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont.), Claudio Colaguori (a sociology professor at the University of Toronto), Tony Dimnik (a business professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.), and Susan Haslip (a business professor who teaches at Algonquin College in Ottawa).

The list will be winnowed down by the judges in September to 10 names. The finalists will then deliver lectures on TVO's Big Ideas series, and viewers will have the opportunity to vote for the winner by phone or e-mail.

The grand prize is a $10,000 grant, which will go to the winning professor's school.
In recent years TVO has begun forming partnerships between specific programs and educational institutions. Saturday Night at the Movies, for instance, provides interviews for film courses at York University. Studio 2, the nightly current-affairs broadcast, is likewise linked with journalism courses at a number of schools.

Journalist Irshad Manji hosts Big Ideas, which will air the Best Lecturer Competition this fall.