June 13, 2000
The new National - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- The national story of last Friday was that the CBC had announced that Ian Hannomansing, the 38-year old CBC correspondent out of this town would assume the role of national news anchor this coming fall. No, Peter Mansbridge hasn’t been given the heave-ho, Hannomansing is just anchoring a supper-hour show that will air from Vancouver, right across Canada on the CBC. (Peter will still helm The National at 10:00 PM, 10:30 in Newfoundland.)
Big deal? Well, considering that the centre of the universe is Toronto, it’s a huge surprise that a national newscast would emanate from the Wet Coast. Actually, there is one national newscast out of BC at the moment and it’s Canada Tonight from BCTV. That show airs on its WIC sister stations across the nation. We see Canada Tonight at 5:30 on BCTV, but it’s anchored by Bill Good. The national version is shot in the afternoon and piped across the nation (except Toronto) with Tony Parsons anchoring that one.
Even in the United States, knowing that logistics are a reality, all the “big 3” (ABC, CBS and NBC) have their supper-hour shows out of New York, as the sun rises there first. (Come to think of it, newsmagazines and the morning shows are there too.) Canada is surely experimenting, as we really haven’t had a real national newscast, like our American friends have Peter (Jennings), Dan (Rather), and Tom (Brokaw,) at the dinner hour. We have Uncle Lloyd (Robertson) and Peter (Mansbridge,) but they aren’t seen nationally until night.
The whole supper-hour concept was spurned out of the mind of Robert Rabinovich, the CBC president who threatened Canadians with the possibility that local CBC newscasts at the supper-hour, like the local Broadcast 1, would be gutted. The compromise was reached a couple weeks ago, and at the CBC Press Tour, Hanomansing is doled out to an even greater prominence. His show will air at 6:00 across the nation, followed by a revamped local show at 6:30. (His show will be without commercials.)
This so-called compromise, is a lost cause. The audience of the local CBC newscasts are dismal at best. No one is tuning in, favouring the private stations like BCTV, Global and VTV, in this town. Why should we watch the CBC now?
The other thing, I, ever the pessimist must present to you for consideration, are that shows that come from the CBC out of Vancouver rarely last if they go nationally. A sitcom shot out of CBC Vancouver in the late ‘70s, barely lasted a year, even though it starred a chap from Burnaby named Michael J. Fox. After reading, Alex Barris’ book on Front Page Challenge, it’s also interesting to note that when FPC was moved out of Toronto and to this town, it folded soon after.
Another thing to note is that with Canada Tonight on board, plus the new Hanomansing gig, Global has announced that it will trump its own supper-hour show out of the local Global station. Actually, it might just be BCTV, since Izzy Asper took over WIC...
I’m sure Hanomansing will do a superb job. The CBC always does, but face it, the CBC doesn’t matter anymore. Canadians could give a damn and that’s a shame.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .