''Canada AM'' is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

morning television Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it ...

news show that aired on CTV from 1972 to 2016. Its final hosts were Beverly Thomson and Marci Ien, with Jeff Hutcheson presenting the

weather forecast Weather forecasting or weather prediction is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for thousands of years an ...

and

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

. The program aired on weekdays, and was produced from CTV's facilities at 9 Channel Nine Court in

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. In addition to CTV's local

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...

s (O&Os) in

Eastern Canada Eastern Canada (, also the Eastern provinces, Canadian East or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of Hudson Bay/ Hudson Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newf ...

as well as affiliate station CITL-DT

Lloydminster Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administra ...

, the program also aired on

independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...

CJON-DT CJON-DT (channel 21), branded on-air as NTV (short for Newfoundland Television), is an independent television station in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, owned by Newfoundland Broadcasting Company Ltd. The station's studios ar ...

(NTV) in

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North Ame ...

, as well as CTV News Channel, the network's 24-hour national news service. The program previously aired on CTV's O&Os in

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

, until they launched their own all-local morning news programmes called ''

CTV Morning Live ''CTV Morning Live'' is the name of the local morning newscasts airing on CTV's owned-and-operated stations in Western Canada, specifically, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg as well as on CTV 2 stations in Ottawa an ...

'' on August 29, 2011.

History

CTV's first attempt at a morning show, ''Bright and Early'', launched in 1966 and was cancelled the next year; among the presenter lineup was future federal Liberal cabinet minister Jim Fleming, who read the news headlines. Ray Peters, the head of Vancouver's CTV affiliate

CHAN-TV CHAN-DT (channel 8), branded Global British Columbia or Global BC (formerly British Columbia Television or BCTV), is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Global Television Networ ...

, had been an avid viewer of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

'', and lobbied CTV to reinstate a morning program in order to compete with the American networks.Nolan, p.160 Peters had intended the show to be produced out of Vancouver, but agreed to a Toronto-based production in order to bring

CFTO-TV CFTO-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Barrie-based CTV 2 flagship CKVR-DT, channel ...

's owner John W. H. Bassett on board. The 90-minute program launched under the title ''Canada AM'' on September 11, 1972, with Carole Taylor and

Percy Saltzman Percy Philip Saltzman, (March 15, 1915 – January 15, 2007) was a meteorologist and television personality best remembered for being the first weatherman in English-speaking Canadian television history. As a pioneer in weather forecasting ...

as hosts, and Dennis McIntosh as newsreader. Taylor left the show in 1973 to host '' W5'', and was succeeded by Elaine Callei; however, Callei left the program within a few months, and was in turn succeeded by Helen Hutchinson, who for a time hosted concurrently with her tenure as co-host of the evening newsmagazine series, '' W5''. Long-time host Norm Perry joined in 1975 and would remain with the programme until 1990, making him the longest-running co-host in the show's history.

Prior to 2008

For most of the 1990s and 2000s, ''Canada AM'' had a consistent running time of two and a half hours, airing between 6:30 and 9:00 a.m. local time, with most affiliates repeating the previous night's late local news at 6:00 a.m. As the program is produced live for the

Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five ...

, the program would be "delayed" in Atlantic Canada to 7:30-10:00 AT / 8:00-10:30 NT. The first half-hour would typically consist of a rundown of news headlines, sports, and weather, followed by a lengthy business news segment produced by

Business News Network BNN Bloomberg is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by Bell Media with the name licensed from Bloomberg L.P. It broadcasts programming related to business and financial news and analysis. The channel is headquarte ...

; for a few years the 6:30 half-hour was in fact a semi-autonomous program known as ''AM Business''. From 7:00 on, the program used a format more in line with its U.S. counterparts. In its final seasons as CTV's Vancouver affiliate, CHAN-TV (known on air as BCTV) would pre-empt the first 30 minutes in favour of its own morning newscast, and eventually delayed the remainder of ''Canada AM'' by an hour, i.e. 8 to 10 a.m. (it did not carry the additional hour discussed below). The program also includes opt-outs for news updates from a local anchor at each station at the end of each half-hour. The network would always produce an alternate national segment for stations not using the opt-outs, as well as CTV News Channel. In fall 2000, CTV decided to match NBC's expansion of ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

'' by adding another hour of ''Canada AM'' from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. local, which aired on O&Os and some affiliates. This would include a "coffee talk" segment as well as other lifestyle features. As a result, CTV dropped the recently renamed ''

Live with Regis and Kelly ''Live with Kelly and Mark'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American Broadcast syndication, syndicated breakfast television, morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show ...

''. As ''Live'' continued to have strong ratings stateside, the Canadian network re-added the talk show in fall 2001, bumping the "coffee talk" hour to 10:00 a.m. in most areas, before abandoning the final hour entirely later in the season. During the early to mid-1990s, ''Canada AM'' also aired a one-hour weekend edition, although this was essentially a "best-of" package of that week's regular shows. Another weekend program, '' Good Morning Canada'', was launched in the early 2000s but was also pre-taped using segments from local stations; it was cancelled in 2009. ''Canada AM'' underwent a format change on January 28, 2008, which saw the show expand to six hours of live programming between 6 a.m. and noon ET every weekday. Local CTV stations across the country aired ''Canada AM'' live between 6 and 9 a.m. local time (7 and 10 a.m. Atlantic Time, 7:30 and 10:30 a.m. Newfoundland Time), while the complete six-hour, live edition aired on CTV Newsnet. Between 6:00 and 6:30 am ET was ''Early Edition'', originally aired only in the Eastern, Atlantic and Newfoundland time zones, while it still aired on CTV Newsnet. The format change was marked by the addition of a second on-air team from CTV British Columbia in

, consisting of host Mi-Jung Lee and weather presenter Rena Heer in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, and news anchor Omar Sachedina in

. The shift from the Eastern to Western hosting teams took place at 7 a.m. PT (10 a.m. ET), meaning that only viewers in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

and part of

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

saw the western team on their local CTV station, although all other Canadians could watch the western team on CTV Newsnet or out-of-market CTV stations carried by cable providers. On June 6, 2008,

CKNW CKNW (730 AM) is a commercial radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia. Owned by Corus Entertainment, it broadcasts a talk radio format. Its offices and studios are in the TD Tower in Downtown Vancouver. CKNW is powered at 50,000 watts, ...

in Vancouver reported the cancellation of the Vancouver-based portions of ''Canada AM''. Biographies of Mi-Jung Lee and Rena Heer were taken off the show's website the same day. CTV announced that it would revert to the program's original format (the additional 6:00-6:30 half-hour will continue as well), stating that the decision was in response to viewer feedback from western Canada indicating a preference for the prior format. A few weeks prior, CTV cancelled the extra local news segments that appeared at :00 and :30 minutes past the hour, reverting to updates only at :25 and :55 minutes past the hour. Following the cancellation of the western edition, CTV continued to produce the 9:00 ET hour of ''Canada AM'' until September 2008. During those three months, CTV Newsnet aired 4 hours of ''Canada AM'' from 6:00-10:00 ET (3:00-7:00 PT), and 2 hours of its own news content from 10:00 a.m. to noon ET to replace the cancelled western edition. CTV British Columbia also reverted to its original local updates (until they were cancelled in March 2009). The 9:00 ET hour of ''Canada AM'' was handled differently on the main network depending on the time zone: * Eastern, Atlantic and Newfoundland Time Zone viewers did not notice a schedule difference at all because the 9:00 ET edition was only available on cable. * Pacific Time Zone viewers were able to see the second and third hour of the eastern edition, but the first hour was preempted with the live 9:00 ET edition at 6:00 PT. The first hour of the eastern edition could only be viewed on CTV Newsnet between 3:00-4:00 a.m. PT. After the 9:00 ET hour of ''Canada AM'' was cancelled, CTV Newsnet (later rebranded as CTV News Channel) began airing an extra hour of its own news content, presented by Marci Ien. From that point onward, the program aired without deviations in every time zone, including ''Early Edition'' at 6:00 AM.

2009 to 2016

In March 2009, CTV stopped producing local opt-out news updates in most markets in order to reduce costs at its local stations. The two exceptions are CTV Toronto (where ''Canada AM'' is produced) and

CTV Atlantic CTV Atlantic (formerly known as the Atlantic Television System, or ATV) is a system of four television stations in the Maritimes, owned and operated by the CTV Television Network, a division of Bell Media. Despite the name, it is not available ...

(which reuses the staff already on hand for sister channel CTV Two Atlantic's

morning show Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...

). Private affiliate NTV also continues to utilize the opt-out for local news updates. As part of

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun, Quebec, in Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in the province ...

's re-acquisition of CTV in 2011, CTV's new owner

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...

announced the launch of new all-local morning newscasts (titled ''

'') to be produced at the network's stations in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, Regina,

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, and

effective fall 2011. (In the latter three markets, local morning newscasts on

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

stations usually had higher ratings than ''Canada AM'' at that point.) As a result, ''Canada AM'' no longer aired on CTV's owned-and-operated stations in

, and is instead available only via CTV News Channel, or out-of-market CTV stations from

or Eastern Canada. The new programs complement existing local morning shows produced under the Bell Media corporate umbrella in Eastern Canada, namely '' CP24 Breakfast'' in Toronto, and ''CTV Morning Live'' in Ottawa and Atlantic Canada. However, the existing programs did not replace ''Canada AM'' on the CTV stations in their respective markets; instead, they air on co-owned local outlets (

CP24 CP24 is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by Bell Media, a subsidiary of BCE Inc. and operated alongside the Bell-owned CTV Television Network's owned-and-operated television stations CFTO-DT (CTV Toronto) and CKVR-DT ( ...

, CTV Two Ottawa and CTV Two Atlantic respectively) in competition with the national show.

Seamus O'Regan Seamus Thomas Harris O'Regan (born January 18, 1971) is a Canadian politician and a former cabinet minister in the government of Justin Trudeau. He resigned from cabinet effective July 19, 2024. A member of the Liberal Party, O'Regan was first ...

left the show on November 24, 2011 to become a correspondent for

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 ...

. Marci Ien took over as co-host upon returning from maternity leave on January 9, 2012. No replacement for Ien's previous position as newsreader was named, and the duty of reading the news headlines at the top of each half-hour alternated between Thomson and Ien. On June 2, 2016, after nearly 44 years on the air, CTV announced that ''Canada AM'' had been cancelled, and would air a series finale the next day. The following Monday, June 6, the program's replacement, '' Your Morning'', was announced. Since its premiere on August 22, 2016, it has been hosted by Anne-Marie Mediwake and

Ben Mulroney Benedict Martin Paul Mulroney (born March 9, 1976) is a Canadian radio host and former television host. He is the eldest son of Brian Mulroney, the 18th Prime Minister of Canada. Best known for his 20-year broadcasting career with the Canadian ...

. Ien soon joined '' The Social'' as a substitute cohost after Traci Melchor took a leave of absence, and would become permanent cohost of the show in 2017, remaining in that position until 2020,"Former 'Canada AM' host Marci Ien new co-host of 'The Social'"
''

Toronto Sun The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid format, tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices are located at Pos ...

'', March 29, 2017. while Beverly Thomson became a correspondent for CTV News Channel. Jeff Hutcheson had already announced plans to retire.

Theme music

For several years, in the 1970s and 1980s, the theme music was an

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

version of

The Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in May 1964. The band initially consisted of Graeme Edge (drums), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (multi-instrumentalist/vocals) and Clint W ...

' "

Ride My See-Saw __NOTOC__ "Ride My See-Saw" is a 1968 single by the English progressive rock band the Moody Blues. It was written by the band's bassist John Lodge, and was first released on the Moody Blues' 1968 album ''In Search of the Lost Chord''. It was the s ...

", which was recorded by

Ronnie Aldrich Ronald Frank Aldrich (15 February 1916 – 30 September 1993) was a British easy listening and jazz pianist, arranger, conductor and composer. Early life He was born Ronald Frank Aldrich on 15 February 1916 in Erith, England, the only son o ...

and the

London Festival Orchestra The London Festival Orchestra (LFO) was an orchestra established in the 1950s. Originally it was the 'house orchestra' for Decca Records, initially directed by Peter Knight, but in 1980 it was incorporated as an independent orchestra, directed ...

; by the mid-1980s "Ride My See-Saw" remained the theme music of ''Canada AM'', but an orchestral version was used rather than Aldrich's. During the same era, CTV's newsmagazine series '' W5'' was using

Supertramp Supertramp were a British rock band formed in London in 1970. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards and guitars) and Rick Davies (vocals and keyboards), the group were distinguished for blending p ...

's " Fool's Overture".

Personalities

Hosts

& Carole Taylor: 1972–1973Bawden, Jim (August 25, 1990). "Beyond the Norm". Toronto Star *Percy Saltzman & Elaine Callei: 1973–1973 *Percy Saltzman & Helen Hutchinson: 1973–1974 * Pierre Pascau & Helen Hutchinson: 1974–1975 * Norm Perry & Helen Hutchinson: 1975–1978 *Norm Perry & Gail Scott: 1978–1981 *Norm Perry &

Pamela Wallin Pamela Wallin (born April 10, 1953) is a Canadian politician, former television journalist, and diplomat who served as a senator. She was appointed to the senate on January 2, 2009, where she initially sat as a Conservative. Early life and c ...

: 1981–1985 *Norm Perry & Linda MacLennan: 1985–1987 *Norm Perry & Nancy Wilson: 1987–1989 *Norm Perry & Deborah McGregor: 1989–1990 * J.D. Roberts & Deborah McGregor 1990–1991 *J.D. Roberts & Pamela Wallin: 1991–1992 *

Keith Morrison Keith Morrison (born July 2, 1947) is a Canadian broadcast journalist. Since 1995, he has been a correspondent for ''Dateline NBC''. Career Beginning his career in the 1960s, Morrison was a reporter and anchor at local stations in Saskatchew ...

& Pamela Wallin: 1992–1992 *Keith Morrison &

Valerie Pringle Valerie Pringle (née Whittingham, born 5 September 1953) is a Canadian television host and journalist, hosting the Canadian edition of '' Antiques Roadshow'' on CBC since 2006. Pringle was born in Windsor, Ontario. Pringle began her career in ...

: 1992–1994 * Dan Matheson & Valerie Pringle: 1995–2001 *

Lisa LaFlamme Lisa LaFlamme (born July 25, 1964) is a Canadian television journalist, and formerly the chief anchor and senior editor of ''CTV National News''. She replaced Lloyd Robertson in this role on September 5, 2011. LaFlamme previously served as the ...

& Rod Black: 2001–2002 *Lisa LaFlamme &

: 2002–2003 *Seamus O'Regan & Beverly Thomson: 2003–2011 *Beverly Thomson & Marci Ien: 2011–2016

Weather/Sports anchor

: 1972-1974 * Wally Macht: 1977–1987 * Dan Matheson: 1987–1995 * Rod Black: 1995–1997 * Jeff Hutcheson: 1998–2016

News anchor

* Dennis McIntosh: 1972–1977 *Wally Macht: 1977–1980"CTV's Canada AM Celebrates 40 Years of Waking Up Canadians, Oct. 22 to 26". Canada NewsWire. October 11, 2012. *

Sandie Rinaldo Sandra Rinaldo, née Brycks (born 16 January 1950) is a Canadian television journalist and anchor for CTV News. She is the daughter of survivors of the Holocaust and is of the Jewish faith. Youth and education She was born in Toronto, and was fi ...

: 1980–1985 * Tom Clark: 1986–1987 * Terrilyn Joe: 1987–1992 *

Thalia Assuras __NOTOC__ Thalia Assuras is a Canadian Broadcast journalism, television journalist and media consultant. Early years Assuras was born in London, Ontario to parents who immigrated from Tripoli, Greece, after World War II. She attended London Cen ...

: 1992–1993 * Wei Chen: 1993–1998 * Leslie Jones: 1998–2003 * Marci Ien: 2003–2011

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

''Canada AM''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Canada Am Television morning shows in Canada CTV Television Network original programming 1972 Canadian television series debuts 2016 Canadian television series endings CTV News Television series by Bell Media Television shows filmed in Toronto 1970s Canadian television news shows 1980s Canadian television news shows 1990s Canadian television news shows 2000s Canadian television news shows 2010s Canadian television news shows