New Year’s Eve will be very different this year on Radio-Canada’s English television, even if this tradition was less anchored than in French with the Bye. The public broadcaster told The Canadian Press on Friday that “financial pressures” led CBC to cancel this year’s famous countdown to midnight with musical performances and fireworks, since 2017.
CBC plans to broadcast a gala this year instead Just For Laughs hosted by Canadian comedian Mae Martin, Sunday evening at 11 p.m., in most markets across the country. The one-hour show recorded last summer in Montreal will not include a countdown to 2024.
The new year at CBC will then begin with the rebroadcast of episodes of the comedy show Comedy Night with Rick Mercerfor four hours.
This is a major change for the CBC, which has long been a reliable haven for viewers on this particular evening. For more than twenty years, the comedians of the Royal Canadian Air Farce troupe offered a special show for New Year’s Eve, until its cancellation in 2019.
A CBC representative said the broadcaster began producing a live countdown special in 2017, starting a new tradition to mark the 150e Canada’s birthday.
The special, often hosted by Rick Mercer, traveled across Canada’s time zones to feature artists on the ground in key cities across the country. “Since that time, this special live format has become increasingly expensive to produce,” CBC spokesperson Kerry Kelly said in an email.
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