The National
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The National is the CBC's flagship national television newscast. It reports on major Canadian and international news stories, airing weekday nights at 10:00 pm.
The program generally follows a format of news headlines for the first 20 minutes without commercial interruptions, followed by a magazine segment that may include documentaries, feature reports and panel discussions. In exceptional news circumstances, this format may be waived.
CBC owned and operated stations then repeat the news headline portion of The National at 11 p.m. Private affiliates of the CBC do not broadcast the 11 p.m. airing.
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History
The National originated as The National News in 1956 airing nightly at 11:00 pm as a thirteen minute program. Larry Henderson was the television service's resident news reader for much of the 1950s. From 1959 until 1966, the newscast was anchored by announcer 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. 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. 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 before leaving to return to work as a foreign correspondent and, in 1978 Knowlton Nash became the newscast's new anchor. During Nash's tenure, the CBC was able to win concessions from its unions allowing working journalists to read the news, allowing Nash to assume the title of "Chief Correspondent" for CBC News allowing 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, being 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 pm 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.
In 1995, the program reverted to the name The National, and was followed by The National Magazine, which later became simply The Magazine. When the program was revamped significantly in early 2001 this segment was renamed Documentary. The program acquired its current look and format in the fall of that year with the CBC's corporate redesign.
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 program was called Prime Time News.
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- Present
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.
Anchors
- 1956-1959: 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 substittue anchors include Jan Tennant, George McLean, Sheldon Turcotte, Alison Smith, Wendy Mesley, Diana Swain, Carole MacNeil, Mark Kelley, and Ian Hanomansing.
Commentators
Bob MacDonald appears as the science correspondent.
Gwynne Dyer appears frequently as the 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 political commentator, member of the weekly politics panel.
External links
- Official website on cbc.ca (http://www.cbc.ca/national/)
- The National and The Journal (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/N/htmlN/nationalthe/nationalthe.htm) - The Museum of Broadcast Communications
Sources
Nash, Knowlton. Prime Time At Ten (1987)