MORE SPACE AFTER MANSBRIDGE: Despite being one of the coolest anchors, Peter Mansbridge did monopolised the CBC news delivery department where many equally talented journalists and broadcasters have been sidelined over the decades. It is a welcome change to have four Mansbridges where Peter Mansbridge did an outstanding job with dignified and professional way, which offers some guidelines for the new team. ****By Promod Puri
GREAT FOR DIVERSITY: This is great for diversity and gender balance and will create a new news experience for The National viewers. I read that they are splitting one big salary of Peter Mansbridge into four – no doubt Mansbridge was the architect and the man who established The National and made it into a Canadian news-media institution along with team of newscasters. ****By R. Paul Dhillon
VANCOUVER – CBC is going diverse and gender balanced in choosing their new hosts for their flagship news program The National.
Four CBC journalists will share anchor duties as the network revamps The National to offer an expanded digital focus along with more insight and analysis on the day’s news, the public broadcaster announced.
The taxpayer funded network announced this week a quartet of new hosts for The National which includes CBC News veterans Ian Hanomansing, Rosemary BartonAdrienne Arsenault and relatively newcomer Andrew Chang.
Senior correspondent Arsenault, Power & Politics host Barton, Vancouver local news host Chang and News Network anchor Hanomansing will debut in November.
Arsenault and Hanomansing will host from Toronto, Barton will be in Ottawa and Chang will continue to be based in Vancouver.
With multiple hosts, the four will all still be able to take turns reporting in the field. Barton, Hanomansing and Chang will stop hosting their current shows sometime in the coming months.
“I didn’t want four different versions of the same person,” said Jennifer McGuire, editor in chief for CBC News.
“The four that we’ve chosen are quite different and they bring different skills to the program … we think they’ll resonate with audiences.”
It’s been a guessing game about who would take over the top post since longtime anchor Peter Mansbridge announced his retirement last September. Mansbridge hosted the show for almost 30 years before stepping down on July 1.
The show is expected to look different in many ways, including the four hosts, and McGuire admits it is a challenging prospect.
“It’s a big risk, for sure it is,” she said. “We’re not seeing it as a television show solely anymore.”
The launch is now scheduled for Nov. 6. The program will still be an hour long and air at 10 p.m., with commercials.
