Broomgate: A Curling Scandal - Transcripts | Listen
CBC News | Posted: April 22, 2024 6:31 PM | Last Updated: April 22
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Image | Broomgate cover art
Caption: (Tara Paquette)
Curling's biggest scandal has never been told, until now.
In 2015, the curling community was almost destroyed by a broom, a broom that was just too powerful. For years, players have been afraid to talk about it. But now, the truth is coming out.
Over the course of six episodes, semi-professional curler and fully professional comedian John Cullen (Blocked Party) is exposing the unbelievable, never-before-told scandal that rocked the sport of curling. Yes, curling.
Produced by Kelly&Kelly with Ed Helms and Mike Falbo's Pacific Electric for CBC and USG Audio, a division of Universal Studio Group.
Launches Monday, May 6, 2024
Episode 5: Sweeping Summit
Media | E5: Sweeping Summit
Caption: For as long as curling has been a game there was nothing in the rulebook about brooms, and so players had nowhere to turn when Broomgate hit. Tensions kept growing, and there were near blow ups and confrontations on-ice. What’s a World Curling Federation to do? Create a sweeping summit — and decide the future of the sport forever.
Caption: Another company, BalancePlus, decides to get into the broom modification game to challenge the Hardline broom. It all comes to a messy confrontation when teams go head to head at a 2015 bonspiel. The ice ends up shredded — and an emergency meeting is convened in Toronto to decide what to do.
Caption: Some people say Brad Gushue, Olympic gold medalist and world title holder, plays the sport of curling with the strategy and cunning of a chess grandmaster. So when he starts losing to two particular teams, he takes a closer look at why and he zeroes in on their brooms.
Media Audio | Broomgate: A Curling Scandal : E2: Magic Mike
Caption: Flush with an infusion of cash from investors the brothers behind the Hardline Curling company are ready to take their revolutionary curling broom into the world. Now all they need is to convince a bonafide superstar to use it. Enter Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen.
Media Audio | Broomgate: A Curling Scandal : E1: The Mystery Broom
Caption: It’s 2015 and we’re at the international Grand Slam of Curling, hosted in Paradise, Newfoundland. A team led by home crowd favourite Brad Gushue debuts a new and strikingly effective new technique. Instead of sweeping the way curlers always have with two brooms, they’re using only one. Within weeks, every competitive curling team on the planet would switch to this technique and the special broom that enabled it. It was the start of the biggest scandal in curling history.
Media Audio | Broomgate: A Curling Scandal : Introducing Broomgate: A Curling Scandal
Caption: <p>A six-part series that tells the never-before-told story of how a broom almost killed curling. Featuring interviews with some of the biggest names in curling — and the men behind the infamous broom. Releasing May 6, 2024.</p>