A message from @petermansbridge. pic.twitter.com/4XFYizJUBx
— The National (@CBCTheNational) September 6, 2016
Peter Mansbridge will anchor The National one final time on Canada Day on Saturday. But if you were wondering who will be the new anchors on the new revamped edition of The National launching on October 30.
There will be 3 hosts for the updated newscast. Jennifer McGuire, general manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News, says the show will be brought more into how viewers consume news in a digital world.
Peter Mansbridge to step down from 'The National' in 2017
Wendy Mesley, Ian Hanomansing, and David Common could easily be the new hosts. If CBC does anchors in different cities, Hanomansing can stay in Vancouver and offer a West Coast base.
ABC tried a 3-headed monster in 1978 in different cities with Frank Reynolds in Washington, Max Robinson in Chicago, and Canadian Peter Jennings in London. That strategy worked until 1983 when Reynolds became ill and passed away. Robinson was reassigned and Jennings became a solo anchor from New York City in 1983.
Andrew Chang, Diana Swain, Andrew Nichols, Kim Brunhuber, Mark Kelley, and even Rosemary Barton would be other good internal candidates. Are there outside candidates who might be in the CBC mix?
Canadian anchor John Roberts jumps from CNN to Fox
Kevin Newman is the host and managing editor of the weekly investigative program W5 and fill-in anchor for CTV National News. John Roberts became the Fox News White House correspondent in 2017 and has been at Fox since 2011.
Neither is likely to leave and bringing either in would undermine those already at CBC. The taint of Fox News would make Roberts' path troublesome. Newman has been an anchor at Global so he has experience but left an anchor situation in 2010.
Canada will join U.S. in having two nightly female anchors
CTV and Global both have female national anchors. Dawna Freisen took over from Kevin Newman on the Global newscast in 2010. Lisa LaFlamme replaced Lloyd Robertson on CTV National News in 2011.
Freisen had worked at NBC News in London before coming back to Canada.
Most likely, CBC will use different anchors to try them out over the next few months. There is usually a lot of summer fill-in anchors but their presence has a higher purpose.
Mansbridge has been the anchor and chief correspondent of The National since May 2, 1988. There will be anchors on October 30, but replacing Mansbridge will be rather difficult.
Twitter capture: @CBCTheNational
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