The National

The National Bio

:''This article is about the Canadian television news show.''
:''For the Australian news program that aired from 1984 to 1987, please see "ABC News (Australia)".''
:''For the rock band, see "The National (band)".''
day nights 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 40 minutes into the program. In exceptional news circumstances, the regular format may be waived.

CBC owned and operated stations then 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
http://www.cbc.ca/... in that timeslot. Private affiliates of the CBC do not broadcast this 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.

''The National'' and other CBC newscasts (including its "supper hour" national and local newscast) are streamed on the CBC website. (More Info)
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, recieving 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 July 31.

On the affected nights, the newscast aired at both 9:00 and 10:00 ET on Newsworld. (More Info)

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 11pm. 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.
http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/...

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, 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 January 11, 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 January 9, 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.

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 appeared 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.

1982–1988

On January 11, 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.

1988–1992

In 1988 the 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 "CBC News" underneath in Frutiger.

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.

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 Jan Tennant, George McLean, Sheldon Turcotte, Alison Smith, Wendy Mesley, Diana Swain, Carole MacNeil, Mark Kelley, Ben Chin, Brian Stewart and Ian Hanomansing.

Commentators

* Keith Boag appears frequently as parliamentary bureau chief
* Bob McDonald appears as the science correspondent.
* Gwynne Dyer appears occasionally as a military affairs correspondent.
* Rex Murphy frequently appears on ''The National'' with commentaries on a segment entitled "Point of View", before the end of the program.
* Allan Gregg was until 2005 a frequent political commentator and member of the weekly political panel. He now appears regularly, if less frequently, on CTV, which now also employs his company, The Strategic Counsel, as its polling partner.

Sources

* Nash, Knowlton. ''Prime Time At Ten'' (1987)

The National Biography