The National (CBC) - History

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.

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 colour. 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 News Magazine 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. During this time, the title The National was appropriated for a separate newscast on CBC Newsworld, hosted by Alison Smith.

In 1995, the main-network program reverted to the name The National, hosted by Peter Mansbridge, and was followed by The National Magazine, hosted by Hana Gartner. Brian Stewart later took the helm of the second program, which was retitled The Magazine. It continued as a pseudo-separate program until the start of the federal election campaign of fall 2000, when the second half-hour was turned over to additional election coverage hosted by Mansbridge, under the moniker "Behind the Ballot". However, The Magazine did not return after the election, and Mansbridge continued to anchor the full hour. In early 2001, this integrated format was formally introduced as part of a revamp of the program; for a time, the latter part of the hour was often titled Documentary, on nights when such were featured; on other occasions, feature reports and/or panel discussions would be featured instead. The program acquired a new look and format in the eventful fall of that year with the CBC's latest corporate redesign.

Beginning in the late 1990s, in an effort to provide an 11:00 p.m. alternative to the now-dominant CTV National News, CBC owned-and-operated stations would repeat the news headline portion of The National at 11:00 p.m., followed (until summer 2000) by a half-hour local newscast at 11:30. This practice ended in October 2006, when The Hour began airing in that timeslot. Most private affiliates of the CBC did not broadcast the 11 p.m. airing.

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.

The CBC in summer 2006 briefly and controversially aired The National at 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. The One received very low ratings on both ABC and CBC, and after two weeks The National returned to airing at 10 p.m. five nights a week as of 31 July 2006.

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.

The CBC announced a strategic revamp of The National in December 2008, under which the network's weekend newscasts Saturday Report and CBC News: Sunday Night will also be renamed The National in 2009. In September 2009 The National switched to a seven night a week format. In line with the scheduling of CBC's former Saturday Report, the program continues to air at 6 p.m. on Saturdays, rather than the 10 p.m. timeslot in which it airs on all other days, because of Hockey Night in Canada.