Paul Graham | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1959-06-09)June 9, 1959 (age 66) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
| Alma mater | Northern Alberta Institute of Technology |
| Occupation | Television producer |
| Years active | 1979–2025 |
| Known for | |
| Notable work | |
| Awards | |
Paul Graham (born June 9, 1959) is a Canadiantelevision producer. As vice-president andexecutive producer ofThe Sports Network from 2010 to 2025, he oversaw the long-term development strategy for live event production while negotiating broadcast agreements. Since 2009, he produced allCanadian Football League (CFL) games and theGrey Cup, and implemented new camera angles, microphones, andslow motion forinstant replays. He advocated expanded coverage ofInternational Ice Hockey Federation events, envisioning growth in interest andviewer ratings, leading to broadcasts for all games of theIIHF World Junior Championship.
Graduating fromNorthern Alberta Institute of Technology, he worked theEdmonton Oilers' firstNational Hockey League season. His early CFL work began withCBC Sports in 1980, and continued with the newly establishedCanadian Football Network in 1987. He was a senior producer ofHockey Night in Canada from 1998 to 2009, and produced coverage of multiple other sports including theWinter Olympic Games. His honours include theHugh Campbell Distinguished Leadership Award, induction into the media section of theCanadian Football Hall of Fame, theIIHF Media Award,Canadian Screen Awards, andGemini Awards.
Graham was born on June 9, 1959,[1] at theRoyal Alexandra Hospital inEdmonton, Alberta.[2][3] He grew up in theWestwood neighbourhood,[3] across the road from Westwood Arena where he learned to skate.[4] As a child, he was a newspaper carrier for theEdmonton Journal,[3] and organized ball hockey and football games among friends.[5] He was a regular member of theKnothole Gang atClarke Stadium, watching theEdmonton Eskimos for25 cents per game. He was also aball boy for theEdmonton Wildcats, earningCA$2 per week at their practices, and travelled with the team to road games inCalgary andRegina.[2][3]
AttendingSt. Joseph High School, Graham played football as a teammate of future professional playerHank Ilesic.[2] Graham graduated fromNorthern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) with aBachelor of Arts degree in Radio and Television Arts in 1979. He played intramuralflag football while at NAIT, and credited the school for giving him the confidence to work in television.[5]
Graham was a producer and director for NAIT Ooks men's ice hockey games oncommunity television, when offered a job withHockey Night in Canada broadcasting games for theEdmonton Oilers during their firstNational Hockey League (NHL) season.[5] He initially declined, then was invited toNorthlands Coliseum during a meal break for a tutorial on graphics for research and statistics,[5] and was hired for the1979–80 NHL season.[2] In 1980, he began working forCBC Sports as a sidelinespotter forCanadian Football League (CFL) games in Edmonton.[2][6][7]
Subsequently working forCITV-DT (laterCanwest Global) andCTV Television Network, Graham oversaw research, statistics, and graphics. With CITV-DT, he was promoted to associate producer, thentelevision producer.[6] He chose production since he enjoyed organizing events.[5] He also worked inconcert production,[2] and moving sets and mopping floors forSecond City Television in Edmonton, while working his way up to being a producer.[5]
Moving eastward in 1987, Graham joined the newly establishedCanadian Football Network which lasted four seasons.[6][7] He produced 40 CFL games per season,[2] from the on-siteproduction truck,[5] including the75th Grey Cup hosted in Vancouver in 1987.[6] He also didfilm preservation work on several decades of videos used to profile the game's hall of fame inductees.[6]
Graham's firstInternational Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) tournament was the inauguralWomen's World Championship, hosted in Ottawa in1990.[1][8] JoiningThe Sports Network (TSN) in 1991,[5] he produced coverage of the NHL,National Basketball Association, andCanadian Hockey League,[6] including tenMemorial Cups.[1] His work also included theWinter Olympic Games in1988,[2] andwomen's ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics.[1]
Graham produced theIIHF World Junior Championship coverage annually since 1992,[2] after reaching a broadcast agreement with thenHockey Canada vice-presidentBob Nicholson.[9] TSN initially covered only theTeam Canada games, then added all games in Team Canada's pool.[10] At the 1992 event, TSN had only five cameras, and broadcast only five games to Canada.[8]
Overseeing TSN's coverage of the inaugural 1997 WinterX Games, Graham felt that despite low ratings at the time, "extreme sport is a statement", that it "[rebelled] against the sporting status quo", and "it's new and fresh and young".[11]
Graham became the senior producer ofHockey Night in Canada in 1998,[5][6] and produced fourStanley Cup Finals, and fourNHL All-Star Games.[2] He also produced coverage of thePan American Games in1999 and2003.[2] In 2003, he became a senior producer forRaptors NBA TV.[1]
Graham returned to TSN in 2009,[6] then was vice-president andexecutive producer of live-event production from 2010 until retiring in 2025.[10][12] He oversaw the long-term development strategy and production for live events, and production of the2010 Winter Olympics coverage fromWhistler Blackcomb as a leading member ofCanada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.[1][12]
When losingbroadcasting rights to NHL games, Graham led a TSN strategy to cover multiple other platforms includingcollege football,March Madness,The Brier, and theUS Open Tennis Championships. In January 2015, TSN had the second most watched month in its history at the time.[4] Graham built relationships with various organizations, leagues and teams, while arranging broadcast agreements and production.[5]
Since TSN became the CFL's exclusive broadcast partner in 2009, Graham produced coverage for all regular season and playoffs games, and theGrey Cup.[5][7] Expanded coverage includedThursday Night Football games, with the100th Grey Cup in Toronto as one of his "proudest achievements".[6] He implemented behind-the-scenes access for viewers, which included new camera angles, on-field cameras and microphones.[6][7] Coverage grew to ninety games annually by the2018 CFL season, using 14 cameras per regular season broadcast. Duringthat year's Grey Cup, his broadcast crew numbered 200 people, utilized 40 cameras including superslow motion cameras forinstant replays, and a camera mounted on thereferee.[13][14]
In 2019, Graham interviewed with the Edmonton Eskimos for the vacant president and CEO position. The team were reportedly close to hiring him, but no financial agreement was reached.[15] He interviewed again for the same vacancy in 2021, but remained with TSN.[16]
Graham expanded coverage of the World Junior Championship and theIce Hockey World Championships to include more games, and began coverage for theWomen's World Championship, and theunder-18 men's andunder-18 women's championships.[1][17] Bringing more international hockey to North American television, Graham produced coverage of theSpengler Cup and theChampions Hockey League.[1] By the2015 IIHF World Championship, TSN televised 58 of 64 games, which Graham felt would create more North American interest comparable to European enthusiasm for the event.[4] When TSN first televised theHlinka Gretzky Cup in 2018, he envisioned a marketable hockey event in August despite low in-person attendance at the time. He felt that by agreeing to televise 2019 event in Europe was part of a process of educating Canadians about the event.[9]
In a 2018 interview, Graham considered the World Juniors his "baby".[2] Due to his "passion and belief" in the event, TSN gradually expanded coverage to include all games of the tournament, when he insisted on "a big game feel".[10] As of the2021 Championships, all pre-tournament and in-tournament games were broadcast. When the IIHF began the tournament on Christmas Day, he anticipated a boost inviewer ratings.[18] His final live event with TSN was the2025 Championships, which exceeded 84 broadcast hours,[10] and first made use ofdrones for new camera angles.[1] Graham stated in 2025, "one of the things I'm proudest of is that Juniors are not just big in Canada", since multiple countries now access full coverage of the event.[1]
In 2017, Graham received theHugh Campbell Distinguished Leadership Award for "leadership and significant contributions" to the CFL.[7] In 2018, he was inducted into the media section of theCanadian Football Hall of Fame.[3][6] He received theIIHF Media Award during the2025 IIHF World Championship in Sweden, for contributions to televising international ice hockey.[17] Other awards during his career includeCanadian Screen Awards, a CANPRO Award, andGemini Awards.[6][7]