| CBC Prime Time News | |
|---|---|
 Title screen used from 1992 to 1994. A different opening used for the 1994-95 season was essentially identical (aside from the title) to the open used byThe National from 1995-97. | |
| Also known as | Prime Time News |
| Presented by | Peter Mansbridge Pamela Wallin (1992–95) Hana Gartner (1995) |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | N/A |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 mins. |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBC |
| Release | November 2, 1992 (1992-11-02) – September 1, 1995 (1995-09-01) |
CBC Prime Time News was a Canadian nightly newscast which aired onCBC Television from 1992 to 1995.[1]
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 calledThe Journal, which was hosted byBarbara 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 theCharlottetown Accord referendum results on October 26, 1992 effectively acted as asoft launch for the show,[2] which formally debuted on November 2. WithPeter Mansbridge andPamela Wallin as equal cohosts of a package which replaced bothThe National andThe Journal,Prime Time News combined news andJournal-style features into a single integrated program which aired at 9 p.m.[3]
Despite the change,The National was not entirely discontinued; concurrently with the change on the main network, the CBC's separate all-news channelCBC Newsworld adopted the title for its own prime time news program.[4]
The program's choice of name also created a conflict withCBC Radio'sPrime Time, whose hostGeoff Pevere spoke out against the potential confusion caused by the television and radio programs having such similar names.[5]
Although ratings were strong at first, with its first week seeing a full 30 per cent improvement overThe National's average ratings during the previous year,[6] 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, whileThe Journal belonged to current affairs;[7] 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 the1992 United States presidential election, 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,[8] and viewer response to the new program's format was highly unfavourable.[9]
Also, because the program aired at 9 p.m., it was competing in one of the most heavily watched timeslots on the commercial networks. AlthoughThe National andThe 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 popularsitcoms such asCheers,Frasier,Seinfeld andMurphy Brown.[2]
As a result,Prime Time News rapidly dropped off in the ratings, seeing a 12 per cent viewership decline after its first week alone;[10] by the end of the first month ratings were lower thanThe National.[11]CTV National News concurrently saw its ratings jump 40 per cent,[10] overtaking the CBC in national newscast ratings for the first time in its history,[12] and CBC Newsworld's edition ofThe National saw viewership gains of 30 per cent over that network's prior prime time lineup, and itself sometimes garnered higher ratings thanPrime Time News.[4]
The shift also resulted in significant ratings declines for several other programs, includingMan Alive andThe Nature of Things, whose timeslots had been shifted to accommodate the new program.[13]
In the fall of 1994,Prime Time News returned to the 10 p.m. time slot, and to a format closer to the oldNational andJournal.[14] Mansbridge again became the sole anchor of the news portion of the show, and Wallin became the host of a magazine segment very similar toThe Journal.[14] However, the show retained the namePrime 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;[15] by December, the show was regularly drawing fully 95 per cent ofThe National's former audience.[15]
In April 1995, Wallin was dropped from the program,[16] and was succeeded byHana Gartner in June.[17] In the fall the newscast officially reverted to the nameThe National,[1] while the magazine segment becameThe National Magazine. This format remained in place untilThe National was again re-launched as a one-hour newscast in early 2001.