Global Montreal begins outsourcing weekend newscasts tonight

A plan to have local newscasts on Global Montreal anchored out of Toronto begins tonight, Shaw Media has confirmed.

The change means that we won’t see usual weekend anchor Peter Anthony Holder on the air tonight, but the company says the timing isn’t related to recent controversy surrounding him.

Holder was criticized by Bloc Québécois candidate Catherine Fournier for retweeting this tweet last week, and replying that he agreed and thought it was funny. That led to several news stories about it, and Holder deleted his tweets and apologized.

Shaw Media wouldn’t comment on Holder, and Holder himself did not respond to a request for comment (both he and the station have ignored or refused requests for comment since the beginning), but the rumour is that Holder won’t be returning to the station in any role, even as occasional fill-in anchor or reporter.

Despite being the main weekend news anchor, Holder was technically considered a freelancer, which means the company doesn’t have to justify firing him.

The outsourced newscasts, in which a Toronto anchor does local news for all markets except Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary, will be hosted by Kris Reyes, who had been part of the national Morning Show at 9am weekdays.

Shaw Media reiterates that this change is meant to “allow for more local news gathering in the field” and it’s an “innovative way to deliver quality programming with more local news to viewers.”

We’ll see.

The 11pm weeknight newscast is also being similarly outsourced (insourced? Whatever.) But that starts in early September. The original plan had been a one-hour newscast, but after Global picked up the rights to the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, that was shortened to 35 minutes to allow for simulcasting with CBS.

 

Noon newscast to start Aug. 27, hosted by Jamie Orchard

Another previously announced change, the addition of a half-hour noon newscast, has a start date. Global News at noon starts Aug. 27, and Jamie Orchard, who does the 6pm newscast (soon to become the 5:30pm newscast) will be the anchor.

Eventually, anyway. She’s on vacation for the first two weeks of the show, so Elysia Bryan-Baynes and Camille Ross will share anchor duties for those weeks. (After that, Bryan-Baynes returns to 11pm for just two nights. Her last late newscast is Sept. 4.)

New hires

  • Kelly Greig, the former Sportsnet Central Montreal reporter recently hired as a videojournalist at Global, is joining the morning show. She starts on Monday. A news reporter is something the morning show really needs, especially since the launch of Breakfast Television on City, which has had a live in-the-field reporter since the beginning.
  • Brian Daly, a former CTV Montreal staffer who joined QMI Agency and the Sun News Network until that went belly-up, has been hired as the new lineup editor, and will help in the production of the noon newscast. He started Aug. 4.

 

12 thoughts on “Global Montreal begins outsourcing weekend newscasts tonight

  1. Steve W

    So technically Peter Anthony Holder has been fired from Global Montreal? Before the recent controversy with PAH, Global Montreal had considered keeping him around in another role?

    Who did Brian Daly replace as Lineup Editor at Global Montreal? Global Montreal don’t list the credits at any time for their newscasts.

    Reply
    1. Fagstein Post author

      So technically Peter Anthony Holder has been fired from Global Montreal?

      No, because technically he was never an employee.

      Before the recent controversy with PAH, Global Montreal had considered keeping him around in another role?

      I can’t confirm that, but Holder would occasionally fill-in for vacationing anchors on weekdays or act as a reporter. That may or may not continue.

      Who did Brian Daly replace as Lineup Editor at Global Montreal?

      I don’t believe he’s actually replacing anyone directly. The addition of the noon newscast requires additional staff, particularly because Jamie Orchard’s day isn’t long enough to line up the noon newscast and anchor at 6.

      Reply
      1. Steve W

        Just to be clear. You have Kelly Greig & Brian Daly as new Global Montreal hires. Are they now Global Montreal staff or freelancers? I’m guessing Kelly is a freelancer with the videojournalist title. What about the more recent hires like Billy Shields & Rachel Lau(are they staffers or freelancers)?

        Reply
        1. Fagstein Post author

          I don’t have details of the employment status of every Global Montreal reporter. But as I understand it Greig and Daly were hired as employees.

          Reply
    1. Fagstein Post author

      Will that neat Focus Montreal show continue and if so, will Jamie Orchard still be doing it.?

      Focus Montreal will return after its summer vacation. I don’t believe any change of host is planned.

      Reply
  2. Brandon

    So what, is Kris doing 5+ newscasts every night? Or are they re-using a lot of the footage. News final looked pretty cut and paste to me.

    Reply
  3. Dilbert

    I feel bad for PAH, he basically made the mistake of behind honest and agreeing with someone’s amusing comment – and it was amusing.

    Political correctness has gone way too far.

    Reply
    1. Steve W

      Totally disagree with you there. Uncalled for by PAH. I’m usually a fan of Peter. Of course, I’m not a Bloc Quebecois/Catherine Fournier supporter. It would of been worse if he originally tweeted that comment. He did the next worst thing, by retweeting it.

      Reply
  4. Peter

    Happy to see Greig on the morning show. I really enjoyed her reports on city. It’s a shame what happened to that show- completely gutted.
    She works excellently as a news reporter though.

    Reply

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