Update: Ben Mulroney and Anne-Marie Mediwake will host Your Morning, the replacement for Canada AM. The program will debut later this summer. Details can be found here.
The long-time CTV morning show Canada AM is going off the air after 43 years today, only a day after the network announced its ending.
We don't write much about CTV since few Americans have access to a CTV signal. Buffalo, NY and Bellingham, WA are two of the bigger U.S. cities that can get a CTV signal.
Canada AM ran from 6-9 am and competed against Global's The Morning Show and Breakfast Television on City TV. CBC runs local shows from 6-7 am before switching over to kids programming.
CTV News Channel programming will run as a simulcast on CTV in the interim starting Monday. The network will announce a new program for the timeslot next week.
Canada AM host Jeff Hutcheson had already announced his retirement. As for the other two hosts, Beverly Thomson (left) will go to CTV News Channel while Marci Ien (right) was work on new projects within Bell Media.
CTV has an odd dynamic with the morning shows. CTV Morning Live is the name for local versions that run in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg. Viewers in those western markets can watch Canada AM on CTV News Channel, CTV Lloydminster, or CTV stations in the east. Plus, CTV Morning Live runs on CTV Two stations in Ottawa and Atlantic Canada. The vast majority of Canadians live in the Eastern time zone.
While the name Canada AM will be retired, CTV is clearly not getting out of the morning show business. There will be another morning show in its place. But this is the equivalent of blowing up Good Morning America or Today, even if another morning show is coming. They are reassigning their on-air talent with a day's notice to the public. This is a very odd move.
Some prominent names in other circles have been hosts on Canada AM.
- Rod Black was the sports anchor on Canada AM from 1995-1997 and hosted the show from 2001-2002.
- Current federal senator Pamela Wallin had a pair of stints as host from 1981-1985 and 1991-1992.
- J.D. Roberts aka John Roberts hosted from 1990-1992, including time with Wallin as hosts.
- Keith Morrison of NBC News hosted from 1992-1994.
- Current CTV nightly anchor Lisa LaFlamme hosted the show from 2001-2003.
- Newly elected Liberal MP Seamus O’Regan was a host from 2002-2011.
- Linda MacLennan is not a national figure but did anchor from 1985-1987. MacLennan then went to anchor in Chicago. Learning that she worked at Canada AM was the first time I had heard of the show.
There will be much more to this story soon. In the meantime, thanks for 43 years of waking up Canadians, Canada AM.
photo credit: CTV
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