Known officially as "CBC News: The National," "The National" is the flagship newscast of CBC Television, airing weeknights at 10 PM local time, 10:30 in Newfoundland. The show began in 1954 as "The National News," and was anchored by
Larry Henderson, who sometimes swore on the
air. Currently, the anchor is CBC News' Chief Correspondent, Peter Mansbridge, who has held the anchor position since 1988. Lloyd Robertson, now the
top anchor at rival CTV, anchored from 1970 to 1976. Knowlton Nash was the last anchor before the incumbent Mansbridge, serving from 1978 to 1988. The newscast originates from the
Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto.
In addition to Mansbridge, "The National" utilizes many reporters, many of whom substitute for Mansbridge when he is away. Among them are Chief Political Correspondent Keith Boag,
Mark Kelley, Brian Stewart, Diana Swain, Carole MacNeill,
Heather Hiscox, Ian Hanomansing, and
Wendy Mesley, to whom Mansbridge was married for three years. Commentator Rex Murphy appears each Thursday night to speak about a major issue of the week in "Point of View." And during the political season, Mansbridge hosts a panel discussion called "At Issue," featuring Andrew Coyne, Chantal Hebert, and
Allan Gregg. Mansbridge will also anchor the show on the road, from cities like Ottawa, and once presented an edition from Alexandria, Egypt. Each newscast ends with a weather forecast for the following
day from
British meteorologist Claire
Martin, who does her weather segments from the CBC News WeatherCentre in Vancouver.
"The National" went HD in Autumn 2007, becoming the first major
Canadian newscast to do so, and is one of the few newscasts in the world that can be seen by a worldwide audience at its website, cbc.ca/national.