W5 is a Canadian news magazine television series produced by CTV News. The program is currently initially broadcast Saturday nights at 7 p.m. on CTV, with repeat broadcasts at later times on CTV as well as co-owned channels CTV Two, CP24, and Investigation Discovery.
The title refers to the Five Ws of journalism: Who, What, Where, When and Why? It is the longest-running newsmagazine/documentary program in North America and the most-watched program of its type in Canada.
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W5 is the longest-running current affairs/newsmagazine program in North America and the third longest-running Canadian television program.
It was launched as W5 in 1966 just after the demise of CBC Television's This Hour Has Seven Days, at a time when the CTV network was on the brink of bankruptcy. The program's magazine format is considered an inspiration for a number of similar programs, including the American series 60 Minutes which premiered two years later.
The program's first executive producer was Peter Reilly, who later went on to become first host of the CBC's later current affairs offering, The Fifth Estate. Peter Rehak was executive producer through the 1980s and 1990s.
Robert Hurst oversaw a revamping of the program look in the mid-nineties. He was succeeded by Malcolm Fox, who was the program's executive producer from September 2000 until September 2009. Anton Koschany is the current executive producer.
The program's first regular host was Ken Cavanagh, with reports from CTV National News journalists such as Doug Johnson and Frank Drea, who later became a Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario and Trina McQueen, later president of CTV. During the 1970s, Henry Champ was a long-time host, along with Ken Lefolii and Tom Gould. Helen Hutchinson, was one of the first women to gain a prominent position television news in Canada. Jim Reed joined the programme in 1972 as a field producer and was later appointed as host along with Helen Hutchinson and Henry Champ.
Eric Malling joined W5 in 1990 from CBC's rival news magazine, the fifth estate. In 1991, a new team of reporters also joined the program: Susan Ormiston, Christine Nielsen, and Elliott Shiff. Under Malling's guidance, the program was called W5 with Eric Malling. It is nearly single-handedly credited with bringing the rising amount of government debt to Canadians' attention. An in-depth report on New Zealand showed the results of a nation that had suffered the effects of a debt wall. Malling left W5 in 1996, and then died from an accident at his home in 1998.
In 1994, the program was rebranded to W-FIVE and became more populist. Hosts included top CTV journalists, including Lloyd Robertson, Craig Oliver and the late Jim O'Connell.
With broadcast shifting to HD for the 2009–2010 season the program reverted to its traditional title W5 with a revised graphic treatment and a new theme that reflects its investigative nature and culminates in five notes representative of the five Ws of journalism.
Today's hosts are Sandie Rinaldo and Lloyd Robertson. Victor Malarek and Paula Todd are the principal reporters and are joined by CTV News correspondents. Anton Koschany is executive producer. W5 has produced such stories as a possible cure for multiple sclerosis, an investigation into fatal shootings by RCMP officers, exposing used car dealer trickery, rampant corruption in Canada's immigration system, and personal stories of burn recovery from the Bali Bombing.
Since 2000, the program has officially been designated a "documentary series", with only one or two segments filling an hour-long episode, due to CRTC regulations that count documentaries, but not older-style newsmagazines, as "priority programming".
For a period of time in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the program's introductory theme music used part of "Fool's Overture", a song by the UK band Supertramp. The current theme was composed by Doug Pennock, who has also composed music for other CTV special projects, including the 2007 two-hour documentary Triumph & Treachery: The Brian Mulroney Story.
On October 24, 2009, CTV unveiled a new look for W5, introduced a new logo and began broadcasting for the very first time in high definition. The title was once again rebranded, back to its original title as W5.
W5 came under controversy during the 1970s when it aired a feature called "Campus Giveaways" that used incorrect statistics to conclude that foreign students were eroding white Canadians' opportunities for a secondary education and benefitting from public universities funded by Canadian taxpayers, without exploring the statement's backgrounds. The host of the program stated:
It has been alleged that the feature was specifically directed to form a negative view towards Chinese and Chinese Canadians. As well, it did not determine if the people filmed in that particular episode were actually Chinese or Chinese Canadian. After protests by Chinese Canadians, including Dr. Joseph Wong (later founder of the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care), W5 retracted this statement and apologised. The president of CTV of the time, Murray Chercover, issued the following statement on April 16, 1980:
This event also led to the formation of the Chinese Canadian National Council in order to form a stronger voice representing Chinese Canadians nationwide.
Hosts, reporters, and producers associated with the program have included:
1 1979a "Campus Giveway." W5 Transcripts. September 30, 1979 (Released October 4, 1979).
2 "News release: Statement by President and Managing Director, CTV" April 16, 1980.