Review: Will millennials embrace CBC’s new four-host, revamped ‘National’?
TORONTO — Can four new hosts take the place of an anchor who led CBC’s “The National” for nearly 30 years?
It will take more than one newscast to properly judge, but CBC demonstrated Monday that its new team-approach to the nightly news at the very least looks different — and younger — than what rival broadcasters have to offer.
There’s no blaring theme song to open this new “National,” no showy, brightly coloured graphics off the top. Instead, three or four simple stills set the table for the day’s headlines. Viewers are then whisked to Toronto-based Ian Hanomansing and Adrienne Arsenault, Rosemary Barton in Ottawa and Andrew Chang in Vancouver. On opening night, they often appeared together onscreen in separate, hockey card-shaped rectangles, leaving barely enough room for all their poppies.
The four anchors smiled but never got too chummy, like on “The View.” They also didn’t shout over each other, like on the old “At Issue” panel.