''CBC Prime Time News'' was a Canadian nightly newscast which aired on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

from 1992 to 1995."CBC gives last rites to PTN, revives The National". ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...

'', September 2, 1995.

Background

For the previous ten years, the CBC's nightly newscast, '' The National'', had aired at 10 p.m., and was followed by a 40-minute newsmagazine package called '' The Journal'', which was hosted by Barbara Frum. However, following Frum's death in early 1992, the CBC took the opportunity to revamp its flagship newscast. The CBC's live coverage of the

Charlottetown Accord The Charlottetown Accord () was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canada, Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendums in Canada, referendum on October ...

referendum results on October 26, 1992 effectively acted as a

soft launch A soft launch, also known as a soft opening, is a preview release of a product or service to a limited audience prior to the general public. Soft-launching a product is sometimes used to gather data or customer feedback, prior to making it wi ...

for the show,"The News at Nine; CBC's new Prime Time News goes up against the U.S. networks' slickest hits". '' The Gazette'', October 31, 1992. which formally debuted on November 2. With Peter Mansbridge and Pamela Wallin as equal cohosts of a package which replaced both ''The National'' and ''The Journal'', ''Prime Time News'' combined news and ''Journal''-style features into a single integrated program which aired at 9 p.m. Despite the change, ''The National'' was not entirely discontinued; concurrently with the change on the main network, the CBC's separate all-news channel CBC Newsworld adopted the title for its own prime time news program."Newsworld is big winner after changes at CBC news". '' The Gazette'', December 12, 1992. The program's choice of name also created a conflict with

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

's ''

Prime Time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

'', whose host Geoff Pevere spoke out against the potential confusion caused by the television and radio programs having such similar names.

Ratings performance

Although ratings were strong at first, with its first week seeing a full 30 per cent improvement over ''The Nationals average ratings during the previous year, the approach proved unpopular, both within the CBC and with network audiences and critics. ''The National'' had been produced by the CBC's news department, while ''The Journal'' belonged to current affairs; bringing the two departments together was fractious, and the on-air rapport between Wallin and Mansbridge was visibly tense at times. Critics especially lambasted the debut episode, whose lead story was the last full day of the

1992 United States presidential election The 1992 United States presidential election was the United States presidential election, presidential election, held in the United States, on November 3, 1992. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of governor of Arkansas B ...

, as "an uninspiring collection of newsreading, charts and cutaways to foreign correspondents" more reminiscent of a local television station than a national network with the high reputation of CBC News, and viewer response to the new program's format was highly unfavourable. Also, because the program aired at 9 p.m., it was competing in one of the most heavily watched timeslots on the commercial networks. Although ''The National'' and ''The Journal'' had faced commercial competition at 10 p.m., they had been much more successful at carving out their own niche because in that time slot, almost all of the commercial networks were airing drama series. At 9 p.m., ''Prime Time News'' had to compete with popular

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

s such as ''

Cheers ''Cheers'' is an American television sitcom, created by Glen and Les Charles, Glen Charles & Les Charles and James Burrows, that aired on NBC for eleven seasons from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/C ...

'', ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Casey, and David Lee (scr ...

'', ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It ...

'' and ''

Murphy Brown ''Murphy Brown'' is an American television sitcom created by Diane English that premiered on November 14, 1988, on CBS. The series stars Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news presenter, news anch ...

''. As a result, ''Prime Time News'' rapidly dropped off in the ratings, seeing a 12 per cent viewership decline after its first week alone;"CTV lures audience and anchor from CBC; CTV News ratings up 40 per cent since CBC's Prime Time News debut". ''

'', November 21, 1992. by the end of the first month ratings were lower than ''The National''. ''

CTV National News ''CTV National News'' is the flagship newscast of CTV News, the news division of the CTV Television Network, which airs at 11:00 pm local time on the CTV stations across Canada, and is produced from CTV's facilities at 9 Channel Nine Court in Sc ...

'' concurrently saw its ratings jump 40 per cent, overtaking the CBC in national newscast ratings for the first time in its history, and CBC Newsworld's edition of ''The National'' saw viewership gains of 30 per cent over that network's prior prime time lineup, and itself sometimes garnered higher ratings than ''Prime Time News''. The shift also resulted in significant ratings declines for several other programs, including '' Man Alive'' and ''

The Nature of Things ''The Nature of Things'' (formerly, ''The Nature of Things with David Suzuki'') is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on CBC Television on 6 November 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect th ...

'', whose timeslots had been shifted to accommodate the new program.

Format revisions

In the fall of 1994, ''Prime Time News'' returned to the 10 p.m. time slot, and to a format closer to the old ''National'' and ''Journal''."CBC turns back the clock on nightly newscast". ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunn ...

'', September 7, 1994. Mansbridge again became the sole anchor of the news portion of the show, and Wallin became the host of a magazine segment very similar to ''The Journal''. However, the show retained the name ''Prime Time News'' for the 1994–1995 television season, and Wallin sometimes appeared as substitute anchor of the main news portion when Mansbridge was absent. Ratings recovered significantly following this shift;"Prime Time News reclaiming audience". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', December 29, 1994. by December, the show was regularly drawing fully 95 per cent of ''The Nationals former audience. In April 1995, Wallin was dropped from the program, and was succeeded by

Hana Gartner Hana Gartner CM is a retired Canadian investigative journalist who is best known as the host and interviewer of several programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Early life and education Gartner was born in 1948 in Prague, Czechoslo ...

in June. Greg Quill, "CBC picks Gartner to replace Wallin". ''

'', June 3, 1995. In the fall the newscast officially reverted to the name ''The National'', while the magazine segment became ''The National Magazine''. This format remained in place until ''The National'' was again re-launched as a one-hour newscast in early 2001.

References

{{reflist, 2 1990s Canadian television news shows CBC Television original programming 1992 Canadian television series debuts 1995 Canadian television series endings CBC News