Breakfast Television

Breakfast Television
Genre Breakfast television
Starring Various hosts
Country of origin Canada
Language(s) English
Production
Location(s) Toronto
Winnipeg
Vancouver
Edmonton
Calgary
Broadcast
Original channel Citytv
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
External links
Website

Breakfast Television (BT) is a Canadian morning news and entertainment program which airs on the Citytv stations (in Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary). Each station produces its own local edition of Breakfast Television.

BT tends to be more relaxed and spontaneous than American morning shows. Unlike American morning shows, it does not have pre-taped segments that are focused on current events or socio-political issues. The guests tend to be more human interest, informational, and promotional in nature and there is little focus on celebrities. This was likely born out of necessity in the early years of BT, but it is most likely a simple matter of preference or style now.

When celebrity guests come on the show, they most often reminisce about their career in general, or are promoting charitable causes. This differs from the American standard of appearing to promote new movies or television series.

On September 5, 2011, each of the local editions of Breakfast Television across all of the Citytv owned-and-operated stations started a half-hour earlier, running from 5:30–9:00a.m.[1]

Contents

Citytv Toronto

On-air presenters

Past presenters

Breakfast Television premiered in 1989 with co-hosts Ann Rohmer and David Onley, with MuchMusic VJ Steve Anthony broadcasting from a different spot around the area each day.

Co-host Liza Fromer quit her job at BT in July 2006, days after the birth of her child. Kevin Frankish has blogged that her departure from the show was "on the absolute best of terms". BT has encouraged people to send audition tapes for consideration. During the summer of 2006, a number of CHUM personalities were invited to guest co-host with Kevin Frankish in the search for the next permanent host. The guest hosts included CityNews sports anchor Kathryn Humphreys, health specialist Laura DiBattista, consumer specialist Jee-Yun-Lee, citytv former weather specialist Nalini Sharma, former reporter Melissa Grelo, E-Talk Tracy Melchor, BT's own Jennifer Valentyne, and Startv's Dina Pugliese. On October 13, 2006 Dina Pugliese became the new co-host of the show.

While the LiveEye tours around the Greater Toronto Area most of the time, Jennifer Valentyne has broadcast from Walt Disney World and Newfoundland.[3] Frankish has blogged that producers are considering facilitating a studio audience.[4]

Every August since 2005, BT has organized a "Viewer Appreciation Day", held in the BT parking lot.[5] Gates open at 6 am, and closed due to capacity crowds early into 7 am. Some people began camping out at BT at 5:30 pm the day before the 2006 Viewer Appreciation Day.[5] Breakfast Television has also held other events, such as a successful world record attempt and a Christmas party.

Just as many people within the CityNews team started off on the CHUM phoneline, both Jennifer Valentyne and segment producer Kevin Forget started by working at "the BT Diner".[6]

Kevin Frankish has publicly discussed his panic attacks with viewers, on air.[7]

Citytv Vancouver

CKVU launched Breakfast Television in 2002. Since its launch, little has changed in the show, with the exception of the news/weather/time bars on BT. At its launch, the screen consisted two small see through bars, one bar vertically on the left side and one bar horizontally along the bottom providing news, weather and traffic. As consistent with other Breakfast Television variations on its sister stations, there currently sits one large horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen providing flash news, weather and traffic. On January 19, 2010, the length of BT was shortened from 4 hours to 3 hours and 6 employees as a result of what Rogers calls severe financial issues with the Citytv stations.

The original hosts of Breakfast Television were Michael Eckford and Fiona Forbes, then they were replaced by Shane Foxman and Beverley Mahood, and since 2005, Simi Sara and Dave Gerry hosted the morning show, but as of August 13, 2008, they were let go.

A new format for Breakfast Television debut in September, 2008, with a new traffic and TransLink reporter.

Citytv Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton

CHUM Limited purchased Craig Media in late 2004. The $265 million (CAD) deal included, among other things, Craig's three A-Channel stations (CKAL-TV in Calgary, Alberta; CKEM-TV in Edmonton, Alberta; and CHMI-TV in Winnipeg, Manitoba).

In February 2005, CHUM announced that the A-Channel stations would be relaunched as Citytv stations by that fall. The morning show on the original A-Channel stations, The Big Breakfast, was relaunched as Breakfast Television on August 2, 2005, when stations were overhauled as Citytv. The A-Channel brand was subsequently transferred to CHUM's NewNet stations whose own morning programs were retitled A-Channel Morning.

Winnipeg presenters

Edmonton presenters

Calgary presenters

Licensed edition in Atlantic Canada (1992-2011)

From 1992 to 2011, the Atlantic Satellite Network (ASN) in Atlantic Canada, now known as CTV Two Atlantic, aired its own local version of BT. At the time of its launch, ASN and Citytv (Toronto) were both owned by CHUM, and both channels had a similar overall movies-focused format. The Atlantic edition of BT was similar to the Toronto version, but with a greater emphasis on the culture of the region, as opposed to (for example) commuter traffic.

ASN was sold to Baton Broadcasting (predecessor of the present-day Bell Media) in 1997, but was permitted to continue using Breakfast Television as the title of its morning show. In August 2011, the Atlantic Canada program finally adopted a new name, CTV Morning Live, in keeping with the launch (or relaunch) of local morning shows under the same title on CTV and CTV Two stations in various parts of Canada.

References

External links