CBC ‘comfortable’ with ratings for revamped ‘The National’ despite post-debut dip
The CBC says it’s “comfortable” with the early buzz for its revamped “The National,” even though the debut newscast’s ratings were only on par with the kind of numbers Peter Mansbridge used to draw.
And they’ve slipped since last Monday’s first broadcast.
On a randomly chosen Monday night in January, when Mansbridge was still anchor, “The National” on the main network had an estimated audience of 734,000 viewers during the first half hour of the show, dropping to 584,000 viewers in the second half.
For the debut of the new “The National” — now hosted by Ian Hanomansing, Adrienne Arsenault, Rosemary Barton and Andrew Chang — 739,000 viewers were tuned in for the first 30 minutes on CBC, while 601,000 were still watching for the second half.