Fromage
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Fromage is an annual one-hour special produced by the Canadian MuchMusic cable channel. Originally hosted by songwriter (and MuchMusic VJ) Christopher Ward, beginning in the late 1980s (later co-hosting with Natalie Richard), Fromage pays "tribute" to music videos that are considered the worst or cheesiest of the year by MuchMusic staff.
Since the late 1990s, the program has been hosted by MuchMusic's acerbic puppet VJ Ed the Sock. The show traditionally airs during the Christmas season as a part of special annual programming dubbed the "Holiday Wrap", and features a countdown of the worst music videos of the year, with humourously cynical (and sometimes profane) commentary from Ed along the way. Only selected videos are shown in their entirety. The specials are often taped in places such as cheese factories and restaurants to play on the name Fromage. "Fromage" is French for "cheese."
The format has changed from year to year.
In 1999, rather than looking back at the previous year's videos, the special focused on the worst videos of the 20th century.
From then to 2003, the awards were given according to categories nominated in, then counted down from least to most votes. 2002 was the last year the show was seen on MuchMusic USA, after that network decided to end simulcasting MuchMusic and become fuse.
In 2004, the format was changed to a top 40 cheesiest video countdown, where any video can be nominated. This has caused videos to be voted that Ed hasn't agreed with. These are usually due to the videos being intentionally cheesy, whereas Fromage is supposed to deal with videos that aren't aware of their own cheesiness. So far, 3 videos have been voted that Ed doesn't agree with:
- The Darkness - "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" (2004)
- Franz Ferdinand - "Do You Want To" (2005)
- Crazy Frog - "Axel F" (2005)
It was announced on the MuchMusic message boards that there would be no Fromage 2006. A petition was created to bring it back. Ed the Sock hosted Ultra Fromage 2006 however, extending beyond just music videos to cover aspects of show business and pop culture like celebrity news. It was 30 minutes long and was shown on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 11:35 p.m. and January 1, 2007 at 12:15 a.m. on CityTV (immediately following the CityTV New Year's show, which Liana and Ed also hosted). MuchMusic has the option of airing the show in the new year, but so far have not seemed particularly motivated.
