Midday (CBC)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Midday was a television newsmagazine series on CBC Television, which ran from January, 1985 to 2000, replacing local noon-hour newscasts on CBC stations. Later on the same day, the program Venture also debuted.
The show, which aired from noon to 1 p.m. on weekday afternoons, presented a mix of news, lifestyle and entertainment features.
The show would open with a 10-minute CBC News summary, usually read by Sheldon Turcotte in the news studio and then move to another studio for the main segment of the program. The news summary would later become a simulcast of the CBC Newsworld hourly news update that was live for each time zone.
Its original hosts were Bill Cameron and Valerie Pringle. The original producer was Michael Harris and the series was directed for its first four seasons by Sidney M. Cohen, who later became executive producer of Canada AM for CTV. Cameron left after a couple of years, and was replaced by Peter Downie; Downie left in 1989 and was replaced by Ralph Benmergui.
In 1993, Pringle left the show to become host of Canada AM, and was replaced by one of show's regular contributors, Tina Srebotnjak. The following year, Benmergui left to become host of Friday Night with Ralph Benmergui, and was replaced by Kevin Newman. Newman subsequently left to join ABC News in the United States, and was replaced by Brent Bambury.
Bambury and Srebotnjak remained the hosts of the show until its cancellation in 2000.
Other notable personalities associated with the show included Pete Luckett and Antonia Zerbisias.
For many years, Midday used the same studio as the CBC's main public affairs show, The Journal
