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It’s December, which means two things. You’re going to hear a lot of Bruce Springsteen singing “Merry Christmas Baby,” and you’re going to see a lot of reflections on the significance of the year almost-past. And who are we to break from tradition? Each day this month, we will roll out new nuggets of wisdom gleaned from 2015, alphabetized for your reading pleasure.

Q is for Q



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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or With Q's reinvention, the CBC discovered the safe bet isn’t always the best one Back to video

After the eradication of he who shan’t be named at the CBC and an exhaustive survey of culturally diverse voices, the soft-spoken rapper Shad was brought in on a sea of fanfare to clean up the bruised image of its flagship pop culture show. But what seemed like the safest of safe bets soon backfired on the ceeb.

With its new host in place, Q (or is it q?) transformed from captivating, edgy and informative to manicured, aimless and boring. At the heart of this is the painful fact that, when it comes to interviewing, Shad is no Jian — or, at the very least, worse at faking it. Which is a big problem for a no bells and whistles, interview-based talk show.