CBC Sports CBC Sports is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for English-language sports broadcasting. The CBC's sports programming primarily airs on CBC Television, CBCSports.ca, and CBC Radio One. (The CBC's French-languag ...

covered the sport of

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

from 1962 to 2011. The CBC began it curling coverage with the

1962 Macdonald Brier The 1962 Macdonald Brier, the Canadian men's national curling championship, was held from March 5 to 10, 1962 at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium in Kitchener, Ontario. A total of 37,013 fans attended the event. Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatche ...

. From 2007 to 2011, it covered the

Capital One Grand Slam of Curling The Grand Slam of Curling (branded as the Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling for sponsorship reasons) is a series of curling bonspiels that are a part of the annual World Curling Tour. Grand Slam events offer a purse of at least CAD$100,000, and fe ...

. Previously, CBC's broadcasting rights have included the Canadian Curling Association, the

Tim Hortons Brier The Tim Hortons Brier, or simply (and more commonly) the Brier (''french: Le Brier''), is the annual Canadian men's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada. The current event name refers to its main sponsor, the Tim Hortons coffee and ...

, the CBC Curling Classic, the

World Curling Championships The World Curling Championships are the annual world championships for curling, organized by the World Curling Federation and contested by national championship teams. There are men's, women's and mixed doubles championships, as well as men's an ...

, and Olympic Curling.

Current broadcasts

Capital One Grand Slam of Curling on CBC

Capital One Grand Slam of Curling on CBC is a presentation of the

aired on the

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

network from 2007 to 2011 and will air again in 2012. CTV/Rogers Sportsnet had previously aired the Grand Slam since its inception in 2001.

Bruce Rainnie Bruce Rainnie is a broadcaster for CBC Sports and was the host (2003 to 2017) of CBC News: Compass, the supper-hour news program on CBCT in Prince Edward Island. He has been with CBC since 1995. Rainnie began his career at CJLS Radio in Yarmout ...

serves as the play-by-play announcer, Mike Harris and

Joan McCusker Joan McCusker (born June 8, 1965 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan as Joan Elizabeth Inglis) is a Canadian curler and Olympic gold medallist. Career McCusker's greatest successes in curling came during the years she played second on the team of Sandra ...

are the colour commentators, and Scott Russell serves as a reporter. CBC airs the finals on the main network and the semi- and quarterfinals previously aired on

Bold In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech. Methods and use The most common methods in W ...

. All matches are simulcasted on CBCSports.ca. Due to a dispute with Grand Slam management group iSports Media, the CBC pulled its Grand Slam coverage in January 2012 just before the

2012 The National The 2012 Pomeroy Inn & Suites National was held from January 25 to 29 at the EnCana Events Centre in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. It was the third Grand Slam event of the 2011–12 curling season and the eleventh time the tournament has been h ...

event. On August 30, 2012, CBC Sports announced that they would air the 2012-13 Grand Slam of Curling in partnership with Sportsnet.

Former broadcasts

Cross Canada Curling

Cross Canada Curling was a series presented on CBC's World of Sport from 1961-1965. Cross Canada Curling featured teams from each of the eleven provincial and territorial curling rinks. The four western rinks played off in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

and the seven eastern rinks played off in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

and Halifax. The eastern and western champions would play each other in the final program.

Doug Maxwell Douglas Dean Maxwell (c. 1927 – August 31, 2007) was a noted Canadian journalist and broadcaster, noted for his coverage in the sport of curling. Among his accomplishments, Maxwell served as director of the World Curling Championships for 18 year ...

called the matches from Toronto,

Keith Barry Keith Patrick Barry (born 2 October 1976) is an Irish mentalist, hypnotist, magician and activist for the elderly. Early life Born in Williamstown, Waterford, Ireland, Keith's interest in magic began at the age of 5 with a Paul Daniel's mag ...

called the matches from Halifax, and Don Wittman called the matches from Winnipeg as well as the championship game.

CBC Championship Curling/CBC Curling Classic

From 1966-1979, CBC sponsored its own bonspiel known as the CBC Championship Curling from 1966–1972 and the CBC Curling Classic from 1973-1979. The announcers for this event were

Alex Trebek George Alexander Trebek (; July 22, 1940 – November 8, 2020) was a Canadian-American game show host and television personality. He is best known for hosting the syndicated general knowledge quiz game show ''Jeopardy!'' for 37 season ...

(1966–1970),

Don Chevrier Don Chevrier (December 29, 1937 – December 17, 2007) was a television and radio sports announcer. He was born in Toronto, Ontario. Biography Early life and career He began his broadcasting career at CJCA in Edmonton, Alberta at the age of ...

(1969–1979),

Ken Watson James Kenneth Watson, (August 12, 1904 – July 26, 1986) was a Canadian curler. Biography Watson was born in Minnedosa, Manitoba and moved to Winnipeg later. He was the first man to skip his rink to three Brier championships in 1936, 1942 ...

(1966),

Johnny Wayne Johnny Wayne (born Louis Weingarten; May 28, 1918 – July 18, 1990) was a Canadian comedian and comedy writer best known for his work as part of the comedy duo Wayne and Shuster alongside Frank Shuster. The son of a successful clothing manuf ...

(1968),

(1968–1978), Don Duguid (1971–1979), and Don Wittman (1978–1979).

CCA on CBC

The CBC broadcast Canadian Curling Association matches, including the

and the

Scotties Tournament of Hearts The Scotties Tournament of Hearts (''french: Le Tournoi des Cœurs Scotties''; commonly referred to as the Scotties) is the annual Canadian women's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada, formerly called the Canadian Curling Associat ...

, from 1966-2008. CBC was the sole holder of broadcasting rights from 1962–1983 and shared rights with

TSN TSN may refer to: Science and technology * Translin, DNA binding protein involved in microRNA function * Taxonomic serial number, a stable and unique taxonomic serial number issued by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System * The Science Netwo ...

from 1984-2003. During this period, TSN covered most weekday matches, and CBC came in for the semifinals and finals on the weekend. In 2004, the CCA and CBC agreed to a four-year deal which gave CBC exclusive rights to all CCA tournaments, including the Brier. The corporation chose to use

CBC Country Canada Cottage Life is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Blue Ant Media. Operated as a brand extension spin-off of the magazine of the same name, the network originally aired a variety of programming focusing on the co ...

, a digital cable channel available in far fewer households than CBC or TSN, to broadcast most weekday matches. To add insult to injury (from the perspective of many curling fans), the time limits on sports coverage that the channel had at that time meant that Country Canada had to end coverage at the end of its scheduled coverage window, even if matches were still ongoing. This resulted in criticism from curling fans, sponsors, and ultimately the CCA itself, which claimed the CBC was in breach of contract and unilaterally ended the agreement after one season. The CBC threatened legal action, but ultimately agreed to once again divide rights with TSN from 2005 to 2007. In 2006, the CCA and TSN signed an exclusive six-year contract which would take effect in 2008, ending CBC's 42-year relationship with the CCA. Announcers for CBC's coverage of the CCA included Don Wittman, Don Chevrier, Doug Maxwell, Mark Lee, Don Duguid,

Colleen Jones Colleen Patricia Jones (born December 16, 1959) is a Canadian curler and television personality. She is best known as the skip of two women's world championship teams and six Tournament of Hearts Canadian women's championships, including an un ...

, Sandra Schmirler, Mike Harris, Joan McCusker, and Bruce Rainnie.

Olympic Curling

CBC aired Olympic curling as part of its Olympic coverage in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2018, and 2022. The announcers for Olympic curling were Don Wittman (1998, 2002 & 2006), Don Duguid (1998), Joan McCusker (2002, 2006, 2014 and 2018), Mike Harris (2002, 2006, 2014, and 2018) and Bruce Rainnie (2006 ''as sideline reporter'' & 2014 and 2018 ''as main commentator'').

References

{{CBC Sports Curling broadcasters CBC Television original programming CBC Sports 1961 Canadian television series debuts Sports telecast series 1960s Canadian sports television series 1970s Canadian sports television series 1980s Canadian sports television series 1990s Canadian sports television series 2000s Canadian sports television series 2010s Canadian sports television series