Prime Time News

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 by The National from 1995-97.
Starring	Peter Mansbridge Pamela Wallin (1992–95) Hana Gartner (1995)
Country of origin	Canada
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	N/A
Production
Running time	60 mins.
Release
Original network	CBC
Original release	November 2, 1992 – June 1995

CBC Prime Time News was a Canadian nightly newscast which aired on CBC Television from 1992 to 1995.

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 called The Journal, which was hosted by Barbara 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 the Charlottetown Accord referendum results on October 26, 1992 effectively acted as a soft launch for the show, which formally debuted on November 2. With Peter Mansbridge and Pamela Wallin as equal cohosts of a package which replaced both The National and The Journal, Prime Time News combined news and Journal-style features into a single integrated program which aired at 9 p.m.

Despite the change, The National was not entirely discontinued; concurrently with the change on the main network, the CBC's separate all-news channel CBC Newsworld adopted the title for its own prime time news program.

The program's choice of name also created a conflict with CBC Radio's Prime Time, whose host Geoff Pevere spoke out against the potential confusion caused by the television and radio programs having such similar names.

Although ratings were strong at first, with its first week seeing a full 30 per cent improvement over The National's average ratings during the previous year, 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, while The Journal belonged to current affairs, and bringing the two departments together was fractious. As well, 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 the 1992 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, and viewer response to the new program's format was highly unfavourable.