| CTV National News | |
|---|---|
 Title screen on September 30, 2013 | |
| Created by | Charles Lynch Peter Stursberg Peter Jennings |
| Presented by | Weekdays: Sandie Rinaldo (2023–present, early edition) Omar Sachedina (2022–present, late edition) Weekends and Fill-in: Heather Butts (2023–present) |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Production | |
| Production locations | 9 Channel Nine Court Toronto, Ontario |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company | CTV News |
| Original release | |
| Network | CTV |
| Release | October 1, 1961 – present |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
CTV National News is the flagship newscast of CTV News, the news division of the CTV Television Network, which airs at 11:00 pm local time on the CTV stations across Canada, and is produced from CTV's facilities at 9 Channel Nine Court in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario. It also airs on CTV News Channel, CTV's 24-hour cable news television channel, live at 10:00 pm Eastern—or 11:00 Atlantic, when the newscast begins its nightly run across the network—with hourly repeats until 2:00 am Eastern (11:00 pm Pacific). The previous day's newscast can be seen on the Internet.
The newscast is presented by Omar Sachedina since September 5, 2022, who succeeded longtime anchor Lisa LaFlamme.[1] Sandie Rinaldo, the longtime weekend anchor, moved in November 2023 to a new early 5:30 p.m. weekday edition that launched on November 13;[2] she was succeeded as weekend anchor by Heather Butts.[3]
LaFlamme succeeded veteran anchor Lloyd Robertson during the second half of 2011, following Robertson's retirement.[4] Substitute anchors include Butts (for weekday broadcasts), Anne-Marie Mediwake, Todd van der Heyden, Joy Malbon, Vassy Kapelos, John Vennavally-Rao, Heather Wright, Merella Fernandez and Jon Erlichman.
The title CTV National News was rarely used in the 1990s and early 2000s; weeknights, the program was called CTV News with Lloyd Robertson and on the weekends, CTV News with Sandie Rinaldo. The title CTV National News was reintroduced in 2008, because CTV News had become the name of both the national and local news on CTV owned-and-operated (O&O) stations, although the banner continues to bear the title CTV News.
The newscast ran for 20 minutes until it was expanded to a half-hour on September 5, 1988. Prior to 1992, the newscast ran a perennial second in national news ratings to CBC Television's The National. In that year, its ratings jumped significantly after the CBC's unsuccessful relaunching of its newscast as Prime Time News. CTV National News became the top-rated newscast for the first time in its history.[5]
Local newscasts are never broadcast nationally. Stories from local stations that have national importance are taken from the local O&O, and a 'national reporter' re-does the story, often from a location hundreds or even thousands of miles from the location of the story. The national reporter always mentions their name and location where they are based at the end of the story, even though that location is often different from the location of the story.
Until September 1998, CTV National News aired at midnight in the Maritime provinces. This was because CTV National News only produced one edition for the entire network, which aired live at 11:00 pm EST. When CTV Atlantic was purchased by Baton Broadcasting in 1997, one of the improvements was for CTV News to produce a second edition of the national newscast that would air in the Atlantic time zone at 11:00 pm. CTV National News moved to its new time in September 1998.[6]
CTV National News is not the same as CTV Evening News, a title that appears in some national ratings reports and is sometimes erroneously associated with the 11:00 p.m. newscast. The Evening News is not a single newscast but the national aggregate of CTV O&Os' local 6:00 p.m. newscasts. (All networks have their O&Os' local newscasts aggregated for national ratings purposes.)
- ^ Connie Thiessen, "Bell Media to launch third-party newsroom investigation". Broadcast Dialogue, August 19, 2022.
- ^ "CTV News adds new early evening broadcast hosted by Sandie Rinaldo". Canadian Press. 2023-10-31. Retrieved 2024-02-08 – via Toronto Star.
- ^ Connie Thiessen, "Heather Butts named CTV National News weekend anchor". Broadcast Dialogue, December 12, 2023.
- ^ "LaFlamme to replace Robertson as CTV news anchor". Toronto Star, July 9, 2010.
- ^ "As viewers drift off, CBC sails rough seas". The Globe and Mail, December 27, 1993.
- ^ "History of Nova Scotia with special attention given to Communications and Transportation (1998 August)". 14 April 2021.