Canada AM
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Canada AM | |
|---|---|
| Format | News |
| Starring | East Coast Team: Beverly Thomson (2006–present) Seamus O'Regan (2006) Jeff Hutcheson (2006) Marci Ien (2006–present) West Coast Team: Mi Jung Lee (Jan 2008–June 2008) Omar Sachedina (Jan 2008–June 2008) Rena Heer (Jan 2008–June 2008) |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| No. of episodes | daily |
| Production | |
| Running time | 6 hours |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CTV |
| Original airing | ??? |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Canada AM is a Canadian breakfast television news show, which has aired on the CTV Television Network since 1972. It was created as a response to the popularity of American morning shows[citation needed] such as The Today Show, and adopted a similar format initially. Originally aired on weekdays, CTV now produces a similar but separate weekend program titled Good Morning Canada.
Contents |
[edit] Anchors
The show's current anchors are Beverly Thomson and Seamus O'Regan. Jennifer Ward and Marci Ien also report for Canada AM and Jeff Hutcheson presents the weather forecast.
The show's initial co-hosts were Carole Taylor and Percy Saltzman. Subsequent hosts have included Dennis McIntosh, Helen Hutchinson, Pamela Wallin, Norm Perry (the show's longest-running host - 1975 to 1990), J.D. Roberts, Dan Matheson, Sandie Rinaldo, Keith Morrison, Valerie Pringle, Rod Black and Lisa LaFlamme.
The program also includes breaks in which a local anchor at each station presents a local news update.
[edit] Format change
| Times | Anchors |
|---|---|
| 6-7 a.m. ET 3-4 a.m. PT |
Marci Ien, Jeff Hutcheson |
| 7-10 a.m. ET 4-7 a.m. PT |
Seamus O'Regan, Beverly Thomson, Marci Ien, Jeff Hutcheson |
| 10 a.m.-noon ET 7-9 a.m. PT |
Mi-Jung Lee, Rena Heer, Omar Sachedina |
In early 2008, Canada AM announced a format change which saw the show expand to six hours of live programming between 6 a.m. and noon ET every weekday as of January 28, 2008. Local CTV stations across the country will broadcast Canada AM live between 6 and 9 a.m. local time, while the complete six-hour, live edition will air on CTV Newsnet.
The show's format was be marked by the addition of a second on-air team in Western Canada, consisting of host Mi-Jung Lee and weather presenter Rena Heer in Vancouver, and news anchor Omar Sachedina in Toronto. The shift from the Eastern to Western hosting teams took place at 7 a.m. PT (10 a.m. ET). This timing meant that only viewers in Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and part of Saskatchewan will see the western team on their local CTV station, although all other Canadians will be able to watch the western team on CTV Newsnet or out-of-market CTV stations carried by television service providers.
On June 6, 2008, CKNW radio in Vancouver reported the cancellation of the Vancouver-based portions of Canada AM. Biographies of Mi-Jung Lee and Rena Heer were taken off Canada AM's website the same day. CTV says it will revert to the program's original format, stating that the decision was in response to viewer feedback from western Canada indicating a preference for the prior format.[1] A few weeks prior, CTV cancelled the extra local news segments that appeared at :00 and :30 minutes past the hour, reverting back to updates only at :25 and :55 minutes past the hour.
[edit] Theme music
For several years, in the 1970s and 1980s, the theme music was an instrumental version of The Moody Blues' "Ride My See-Saw", which is from their In Search of the Lost Chord album of 1968. During the same era, CTV's newsmagazine series W5 was using Supertramp's "Fool's Overture".
