The Passionate Eye

The Passionate Eye is a Canadian documentary television series—and online playlist—that showcases documentary programming from around the world focusing on topics of news, current affairs, politics, and social issues.[1][2] Airing on CBC News Network, it has been on-air since 1992,[3] and has had a website since 2002.[4]

The program was originally hosted by Michaëlle Jean,[5] who left the position when she was appointed the new Governor General of Canada effective September 27, 2005. Jean was not immediately replaced by a permanent host; the series continued under a hostless format until 2015, when Wendy Mesley finally took the reins as a permanent host.

The series initially aired on Sunday and Monday nights. Debuting documentaries, the Sunday programme was titled The Passionate Eye Sunday Showcase (or, The Passionate Eye - Sunday);[5][4] whereas the Monday-night feature was titled The Passionate Eye - Monday.[6] The series eventually dropped the "Sunday" and "Monday" from its heading when it began to air episodes more regularly into its third decade. The show formerly also aired on CBC Television's main network, but was replaced by Doc Zone and later Firsthand. The Passionate Eye continues to air on CBC News Network several times a week.

Going into 2021, CBC made various changes to its documentary commissioning operations; moving forward, the corporation will now commission and acquire one-hour documentaries under its The Passionate Eye banner. Also under this new strategy, documentaries that were previously commissioned under CBC Docs POV will be commissioned for CBC Television and CBC Gem under the Passionate Eye brand.[7]

Similar documentary services of CBC's include: The Nature of Things, which commissions one-hour science and nature documentaries; documentary Channel, which commissions feature-length documentaries; and CBC Short Docs, which greenlights shorter-form documentaries and digital shorts.[7]

  1. ^ "The Passionate Eye".
  2. ^ The Passionate Eye at IMDb
  3. ^ "About The Passionate Eye". CBC.ca. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Since its inception 21 years ago, The Passionate Eye has developed into the most successful international documentary showcase in Canada.
  4. ^ a b "About | Passionate Eye - Sunday". CBC.ca. Archived from the original on 13 December 2002.
  5. ^ a b "Host | Passionate Eye - Sunday/" CBC.ca. Archived from the original on 2 December 2002.
  6. ^ "CBC: Passionate Eye - Monday". cbc.ca. Archived from the original on 22 December 2002. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  7. ^ a b "CBC implements new strategy, brand for doc commissioning". Real Screen. April 30, 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-05-01.