It’s 11:30 a.m. on a typical weekday morning. Society is awake, people are working, students are in class, and almost everyone is looking forward to lunch.
Jay Onrait is sleeping.
He’s not a lazy student napping through a class, an unemployed victim of the recession, or taking the day off and calling in sick. Onrait is sleeping because he’s tired; he had a late night. He didn’t get home until 4 a.m. And this wasn’t just a one-time occurrence. He’s been doing it every weekday night for years.
Why is Onrait doing this to himself? Is he jetlagged? Does he have insomnia? Can he not resist Toronto’s late-night underground rave scene? Although one or more of these may be true, Onrait has been doing this because it’s his job. Every night (or morning) at 2 a.m., Onrait and his partner in crime Dan O’Toole host the late night edition of Sportscentre on TSN. After the hour-long sports show, they make a few edits (the roughness is “part of the charm”) and then call it a night and go home. That episode of Sportscentre plays as the Morning Loop on TSN until noon the next day.
Before he ventured off to host Olympic Morning on CTV in Vancouver (or as he calls it “CTV Galaxy of Stars Olympic Spectacular”), Onrait met with me at a Spadina bar on a Friday in the late afternoon—just after he woke up. “When I first got into the industry, people told me that you will survive if you remember one thing: you’re always working when everyone else is off. I’ve really learned to just accept that aspect of it,” Onrait told me over a couple pints, “but preparation is the key.”
“The mood is fun at 2 a.m.,” he said. “I’m like the oldest guy in there. It’s hilarious. We never see our bosses—ever. [Producer] Tim [Moriarty] is basically in charge. It’s like the asylum is abandoned and the inmates are running it at night. It never feels like work.”
According to Onrait, work is not something he likes to do. When he first started volunteering at ITV Edmonton (while doing an undergraduate pharmacy degree at the University of Alberta to take over the family business), he realized quickly that he was really drawn to the sports guys because “they were just having more fun.”
Fun is a good way to describe the antics that have garnered Onrait and O’Toole a loyal audience and has helped build their reputation as comic relief on TSN. “Chemistry is what makes our show work,” said Onrait. When I asked him how much preparation goes on between him and O’Toole for their banter during the show, he quickly responded, “zero.” He credits his bosses for giving the pair a lot of leeway and trusting that they know where the line is. Not that they have never crossed that line before: Onrait asked me innocently, “Did you know you can’t say douchebag on TV? I didn’t realize you couldn’t say douchebag on TV.”
A graduate of Ryerson’s Radio and Television Arts program, Onrait started interning at TSN as a writer while attending school. After graduating, he had a few gigs around Canada including working in Saskatchewan and hosting morning news program the Big Breakfast in Winnipeg. In 2001, Onrait returned to Toronto to work for the NHL Network before landing a job with TSN a year later.
When Onrait discussed his journey to get where he is today or the paths of others like him, he started to get a little sentimental. The industry has changed across the country and it seems to have upset him to some extent. “It’s not like the old days where if you wanted to be a broadcaster, you could go to a place like Swift Current and be on television,” Onrait emotionally explained. “They’re all being shut down. They really did serve a purpose. They were a chance for [new broadcasters] to go to make mistakes.”
The people he’s talking about are his peers at TSN, of which he had only the most positive things to say. “Everyone gets along kind of ridiculously well, [there’s] no egos. I think we’re all appreciative of what we have. More than that, there are no assholes. I would tell you if there were. I wouldn’t name them, but I’d tell you if there were.”
Discussing specific personalities that he admires at the network, Onrait reassured me there is no one there he doesn’t like, but did share a few he truly admires. “I love Rod Smith. To me, when I first got here as a writer, to now, he’s always just been the nicest guy in the world. And he’s an amazing journalist. I also love [Chris] Cuthbert,” continued Onrait. “He is just a great example. This is a guy who calls the gold medal game at the Olympics, the pinnacle of his profession, and he couldn’t be more down to Earth or nice if he tried. I try to follow the example of people like that.”
As the interview progressed, Onrait felt as though he needed to get a few things off his chest.
First, the CFL. He hates the comparison to the NFL. “Nobody that enjoys the game is under the illusion that these players are better than NFL players,” said Onrait in a way that made me feel a little guilty. “Young people are missing the point: celebrating a unique Canadian game with Canadian rules. They say it’s stupid. It’s different! You don’t have to compare it to the NFL! It’s a different game. Just enjoy it for what it is. It gives Canadian athletes, CIS athletes, a chance to play pro. And it’s just fun! Just go enjoy it, have a few beers and just chill out.” He leaned back in his chair. It seemed like he’d been keeping that one bottled up for a while—beer is a good release.
Next, Onrait moves on to the Rogers Centre. Of course, he only refers to it by its former name. “The Skydome is just atrocious. It’s a bad atmosphere for the CFL and for baseball. I despise that building. I feel they should implode it. You can write that down by the way.” I oblige. I have never heard anyone use the word “despise” so strongly before.
On his future, Onrait joked that he is planning on working on Sportscentre for the next 40 or 50 years, to which I’m sure most of his fans would not object. He said he has no plans to try something new. Even when I prodded him with questions about maybe becoming a hockey “insider” or calling play-by-play, he seemed set in his ways. “I like doing that kind of stuff but it feels too much like work to me. That’s not why I got into this business.”
