Everything about The National totally explained
» This article is about the Canadian television newscast. For the indie rock band, see The National (band). For other uses, see The National (disambiguation).
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 began
airing
in that timeslot. Private affiliates of the CBC didn't 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.
In the fall of
2007,
The National became the first main newscast in Canada to be broadcast in
HDTV.
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 wasn't ready on cue.
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'd 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 wasn't 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 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.
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 - for example 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's 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
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.Further Information
Get more info on 'The National'.
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