TORONTO — CBC is restoring its live New Year's Eve celebration.
A year after the national broadcaster cancelled the 2024 countdown due to "financial pressures," it says the special event is back on the TV schedule to mark the dawn of 2025.
Festivities begin Dec. 31 with the one-hour "22 Minutes New Year's Eve Pregame Special," a satirical reflection on the events of 2024 with the cast of the political comedy series "This Hour Has 22 Minutes."
It will be followed by "Canada Live! Countdown 2025," a special hosted by news anchor Adrienne Arsenault and singer Jann Arden broadcasting live from Toronto's Harbourfront Centre, and anchor Ian Hanomansing and comedian Ali Hassan at Vancouver's VanDusen Botanical Garden.
A representative for the CBC says the coast-to-coast show will feature reporters at more than a dozen community events across the country while a countdown to the new year will take place in each of the six time zones.
Throughout the seven-and-a-half-hour program, "many Canadian celebrity guests" will appear in live and pre-taped messages.
"Canada Live! Countdown 2025" begins at 8 p.m. ET on CBC News Network and CBC Gem with CBC-TV and CBC Radio picking up the feed at 9 p.m. in local markets.
Last year, the CBC replaced its live New Year's Eve programming with a taped Just For Laughs special hosted by comedian Mae Martin. That left Canadians without a homegrown countdown on any of the major networks, which sparked blowback on social media from some viewers.
The CBC began its annual specials in 2017 to mark Canada’s sesquicentennial year. Some of the more recent broadcasts were hosted by comedian Rick Mercer and featured fireworks and musical performances in key cities.
But when CBC paused those plans last year, it said the show had become "increasingly expensive to produce."
The decision to sideline the program was made shortly after members of Parliament summoned outgoing CBC president Catherine Tait to testify about job cuts and her refusal to rule out bonuses for CBC executives.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2024.
David Friend, The Canadian Press