The National , now officially known as CBC News: The National , is the CBC's flagship national television newscast. It reports on major Canadian and international news stories, airing on CBC Television weeknights at 10:00 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. NT). The program generally follows a format of news headlines for the first 20 minutes followed by a magazine segment that may include documentaries, feature reports and/or panel discussions. The first commercial interruption usually comes about 20 minutes into the program. In exceptional news circumstances, the regular format may be waived. CBC owned-and-operated stations used to repeat the news headline portion of The National at 11:00 p.m.; this practice ended in October 2006, when repeats of CBC News: The Hour began in that timeslot. Private affiliates of the CBC did not broadcast the 11 p.m. airing. Additional airings, on CBC Newsworld, are at 9:00 p.m. (the initial version that airs live to Atlantic Canada on the main network), 12:00 midnight, and 5:00 a.m., all times ET. Until August 2005, The National was also seen in the United States on the defunct Newsworld International channel. The National and other CBC newscasts (including its "supper hour" national and local newscast) are streamed on the CBC website. [1] In the fall of 2007, The National became the first main newscast in Canada to be broadcast in HDTV.

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History

The National originated as The National News in 1954. Since 1952, there had been a five minute national news bulletin on the fledgling CBC Television service - each bulletin would be read by a succession of readers which, ultimately, CBC management realised resulted in a disjoined broadcast. Program director Mavor Moore decided to choose a single newsreader for the program in order to create continuity and hired veteran radio newsman Larry Henderson to anchor the broadcast which soon expanded to nightly thirteen minute program airing at 11 pm. Henderson, who had hoped to become Canada's answer to Edward R. Murrow, had spent several years travelling the world with his Headliners radio broadcast. He proved a temperamental newsreader who would occasionally swear on the air, respond in anger to cues to speed up his reading, and once walked off the set when a filmed segment was not ready on cue. ^[2]

Henderson left the broadcast in 1959 and was succeeded by Earl Cameron who had been presenter of the National News Bulletin on CBC's main radio service, the Trans-Canada Network, since 1944. Changes in the philosophy of CBC News led to Cameron, a professional announcer rather than a journalist, being replaced by journalist Stanley Burke in 1966.

Though journalists were now reading the news, union regulations required a journalist acting as news anchor to leave the journalists' union and join the announcers' union and thus prohibited the anchor from doing anything other than reading a script written by others. Burke anchored the show from 1966 until 1969 when he resigned in order to launch a public campaign on the Biafran civil war. Burke was replaced by Warren Davis, at which point the show was rebranded The National and the program was broadcast in color. From 1970, the program was anchored by Lloyd Robertson until he was hired away by rival CTV in 1976, largely as a result of Robertson's frustration at not being able to participate in the writing of the newscast due to union rules.

Peter Kent hosted the show for two years and, because he had worked as a senior correspondent with CBC Newsmagazine and The National , he was allowed to report and write and anchor The National and CBC News Specials before leaving to return to work as a foreign correspondent. In 1978, Knowlton Nash—who had been Kent's boss—became the newscast's new anchor. During Nash's tenure, the CBC was able to win "formal" concessions from its unions allowing working journalists to read the news, allowing Nash to assume the title of "Chief Correspondent" for CBC News. This allowed him to participate in the writing of the show's script as well as act as a news editor with influence over the stories selected for the newscast and other questions of editorial judgement. Nash stepped down as chief anchor in 1988 and was replaced by Peter Mansbridge.

On 11 January 1982, The National was relaunched in the 10:00 PM timeslot with a modernized design and format. The Journal , a program that covered news stories in greater depth using interviews and documentaries, followed it at 10:22 PM.

One of the hosts of The Journal from the beginning was Barbara Frum, who quickly became a symbol of CBC News as she was not afraid to tackle the toughest and most controversial of issues. Frum died suddenly in March 1992. Her final interview was with Canadian author Mordecai Richler, which took place just days before her death.

That same year, the CBC, which was undergoing major changes, replaced The National and The Journal with Prime Time News , an integrated package which aired at 9:00 p.m. with two hosts, Mansbridge and Pamela Wallin. However, the show fared poorly in the ratings, and returned to the 10 p.m. time slot in 1994. The National continued to air on CBC Newsworld, hosted by Alison Smith.

In 1995, the program reverted to the name The National , hosted by Peter Mansbridge, and was followed by The National Magazine , hosted by Hana Gartner. This later became simply The Magazine . When the program was revamped significantly in early 2001 this segment was again integrated into the main newscast and introduced by Mansbridge; for a time it was often titled Documentary . The program acquired a new look and format in the eventful fall of that year with the CBC's latest corporate redesign.

On 9 January 2006, The National adopted a new look as part of a major rebranding for CBC News, stemming mainly from an extensive study by the CBC into how to make news programming more relevant, particularly in the face of stiff competition from CTV National News and Global National . The rebranding was originally scheduled for September 2005 but was postponed due to the lengthy lockout that had just concluded at that time. The primary colour of CBC News shifted from blue to red, not unlike BBC News.

In a controversial decision, the CBC announced in 2006 that for the summer months, The National would move up an hour to 11 p.m. on Tuesday nights in the Eastern Time Zone, in order to simulcast the American airing of The One: Making a Music Star over the summer. A Canadian version of the series may launch in the fall in another time slot, but a condition of the CBC's franchise deal for this production was to simulcast the ABC production. This also represented the first time in over a decade that the CBC scheduled an American-produced series in prime time. However, The One quickly flopped in two weeks and four episodes, receiving record-low ratings on both ABC and CBC due to audience indifference, and The National returned to airing at 10 p.m. five nights a week as of 31 July 2006. On the affected nights, the newscast aired at both 9:00pm and 10:00pm ET on Newsworld. ^[3]

In May 2007, The National launched a redesigned website featuring the latest broadcast and recent documentaries, as well as an extensive online archive that opens the floor for comments from the viewers. There is also a behind the scenes blog and video bios on many of the reporters.

Presentation

1970s–1982

The show opening during this period, known as "the Bloops", featured the title of the program in a "space-age" font in green on the bottom of the screen, superimposed over a wide shot of the set. Sometimes the program title appeared in the center of the screen, with a black background. Accompanied by synthesized beeps that resembled an old computer, different letters rapidly cycled from left to right until they spelled "The National".

An announcer, usually Allan McFee, would intone "The National, with," followed by the name of the anchor, followed by a cut to a shot of the anchor beside a screen. The anchor of the program would then summarize the top stories as different slides appeared for each of them on the screen.

1982–1989

An internal study was conducted in July 1979 on whether to move The National to the 10 p.m. slot. This study group was composed of Bill Morgan, Mark Starowicz, and Vince Carlin.

On 11 January 1982, the CBC relaunched The National with a radically different format and presentation style that looked very hi-tech for its time. The new logo used the typeface Stop.

The opening animation, an electronic globe that features a map of the world mapped onto an array of cubes, used red 3D vector computer graphics with blue shading.

The synthesized opening music featured a fanfare played by The Canadian Brass.

During the mid-1980s, Quantel Paintbox was used to create many of the graphics for the stories.

1989–1992

In 1989, CBC updated the presentation of The National with more modern computer graphics. The logo used all upper-case letters in the typeface Times New Roman.

1992–1995

Between 1992 and 1995, the main network's newscast was called Prime Time News ; the name The National was retained on CBC Newsworld.

1995–1997

The logo used the font Palatino in upper-case for the words "The National", and Frutiger in upper-case for the words "CBC News" underneath.

1997–2001

A new opening and look for the show appeared that retained the style of the 1995 opening but used somewhat more sophisticated and modern computer animation.

2001

The logo used the typeface Microgramma, centred on two lines, with the CBC News logo underneath in Frutiger. It was short-lived, lasting only a few months.

2001–2006

In the fall of 2001 the presentation of The National was updated along with the corporate redesign of the entire network to have one consistent branding. The New York design firm Razorfish designed the look of this and other network programs. The logo used the typeface Frutiger in upper case.

In late 2004 or early 2005, several graphics were modified, featuring more blue, less beige, and a slightly modified logo (with bolder type for "The National"). These changes were only implemented in selected sequences, sometimes leading to confusion - i.e. the older set of graphics was used at the start of the newscast's opening, and the new set was used at the end of the open.

The opening sequence started with the CBC News ID which flowed into the main graphic sequence, followed by Mansbridge or the fill-in anchor saying "Tonight ..." followed by a verbal listing of the main headlines and accompanying video and graphics. The title sequence would then continue, and cut to an aerial view of Toronto (new shot every Monday which then ran the entire week) and a Lisa Dalbello announcing up and under the theme saying "The National; from the Canadian Broadcasting Centre, here is Peter Mansbridge."

2006

In early 2006, the entire news division - including The National and CBC Newsworld - received another update, including a new theme song and new title sequences, featuring the colours red, black, and white.

Anchors

• 1954–1959: Larry Henderson
• 1959–1966: Earl Cameron
• 1966–1969: Stanley Burke
• 1969–1970: Warren Davis
• 1970–1976: Lloyd Robertson
• 1976–1978: Peter Kent
• 1978–1988: Knowlton Nash
• 1988–present: Peter Mansbridge (co-anchor with Pamela Wallin from 1992 to 1994)

Other personalities who have anchored The National as weekend or substitute anchors include Alison Smith, Wendy Mesley, Diana Swain, Carole MacNeil, Mark Kelley, Brian Stewart, Ian Hanomansing and Heather Hiscox.

Commentators

• Keith Boag appears frequently as parliamentary bureau chief
• Bob McDonald is the newscast's science commentator.
• Gwynne Dyer appears occasionally, commenting on world and military affairs.
• Rex Murphy contributes a weekly commentary on a segment entitled "Point of View", which runs just before the end of the broadcast.
• A political panel titled "At Issue" airs weekly except during the summer. The regular panelists are columnists Andrew Coyne and Chantal Hébert from Maclean's and the Toronto Star respectively, and Allan Gregg, of Harris Decima.

See also

• Seven Wonders of Canada

References

1. CBC.ca - Video
2. Biography
3. CNW Telbec | CBC TELEVISION | CBC Television values The National and all its CBC news programming