BT Montreal cancelled two weeks ago
TORONTO — Citytv provided more details Thursday about the new format for its Breakfast Television shows in Calgary and Vancouver, exactly two weeks after Rogers Media cancelled its BT Montreal show and eliminated a total of 23 jobs as part of the BT revamp.
Calling it “a refreshed Breakfast Television experience” in a news release, Citytv said the new format of the morning shows in Calgary and Vancouver will debut September 23 and builds on the legacy of Citytv’s iconic BT brand, which is now celebrating 30 years on air in Toronto.
Citytv said the local shows in Calgary and Vancouver will feature in-market hosts and hyper-local news, traffic and weather specific to those cities, but will be supplemented with “broadly appealing entertainment and lifestyle content curated from across all BT shows,” according to the news release.
“We’re bringing a great morning experience to our viewers in Calgary and Vancouver with a winning mix of local need-to-know information, while sharing our most popular segments across multiple markets. Breakfast Television remains intensely local, yet bigger and connected across all our markets,” said Colette Watson, senior vice-president of TV and broadcast operations for Rogers Media, in the news release.
At BT Calgary, Sarah Freemark is the new news anchor, and she will join traffic and weather reporter Michelle Yi and national tech expert and live-eye reporter Mike Yawney. BT Vancouver’s on-air team will be all familiar faces to its local audience, with news anchor Mary Cranston, meteorologist Russ Lacate, news reporter Greg Harper, and Thor Diakow covering entertainment and traffic.
The main change for the two shows is that Dina Pugliese from BT Toronto will host the all-market entertainment and lifestyle segments featured on the Calgary and Vancouver morning shows.
In addition, starting September 23, the new-format BT shows in Calgary and Vancouver will feature a new “L-bar” design, ensuring essential morning information such as traffic and weather are on-screen throughout the entire show and during commercial breaks to help viewers plan their day, Citytv said.
