CP24 Breakfast is a Canadian morning television news show that airs on CP24 (Toronto's 24-hour local television news service) weekdays from 5:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m., and weekends from 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
| CP24 Breakfast | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | News/Morning show |
| Starring | Mika Midolo, George Lagogianes, Bill Coulter (weekdays)/ Various anchors and reporters (weekends) |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Production locations | 299 Queen Street West Toronto, Ontario |
| Original release | |
| Network | CP24 |
| Release | March 26, 2009 |
| Related | |
| Live at 5, Live at 5:30 | |
The weekday edition is currently hosted by George Lagogianes, with news anchor Nick Dixon, Mika Midolo as the transit and occasional weather specialist, and Bill Coulter as the meteorologist.
The Weekend edition is hosted by various anchors and reporters.
The 5:00 a.m. - 5:30 a.m. portion of the program is branded as CP24 Before Breakfast, and the 5:30 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. block is branded as CP24 Early Breakfast.
History
CP24 Breakfast first aired on March 26, 2009, displacing the simulcast of Citytv Toronto's Breakfast Television, which is now owned by Rogers Media and had been airing on CP24 since its inception in 1998. On the same day of the launch, CTVglobemedia (now Bell Media) relaunched its Toronto-based oldies music radio station, 1050 CHUM, as a news/talk radio station CP24 Radio 1050 which the station operated primarily as a simulcast of CP24's television counterpart, which was later reverted to an all-sports radio format as TSN Radio 1050 as of April 2011. Prior to the launch of CP24 Breakfast, from February 2009, until March 25, 2009, CP24 had its own news inserts during commercial breaks on BT known as More On CP24 in which CP24 anchors would do extended morning news updates. Unofficially Citytv hosts had constantly referred to Breakfast Television being "only on Citytv, Cable 7" several months before CP24 launched its own new morning show.
The program debuted with Ann Rohmer as news anchor with Melissa Grelo and Matte Babel as co-hosts, live reporter Cam Wooley, weather specialist Nalini Sharma with Bob Summers, Steve Anthony and Mika Middolo as part of the traffic team. Babel switched to the "Live Eye" six months later before leaving in 2010, Anthony took his place as cohost. Rohmer exited the show in June 2010 and was later replaced by Lindsey Deluce. Sharma went on maternity leave in early 2012 and switched to the "Live Eye" upon returning a year later before leaving the show altogether in 2014. Bill Coulter joined the weather team in her place. Deluce took a maternity leave in mid-2012 and was temporarily replaced by Farah Nasser who herself went on mat leave, six months later. George Lagogianes filled her spot throughout her second mat leave beginning in the fall of 2014. Lindsey Deluce returned to CP24 in late 2015, however, not too long after, she left to join CTV's sister station new breakfast show "Your Morning". Nowadays, the weekday breakfast show is hosted by Gurdeep Ahulwaila.
On March 19, 2011, CP24 extended its morning show with the launch of CP24 Breakfast Weekend Edition becoming the first station in Toronto to serve a morning show seven days a week. The program was initially hosted by Gurdeep Ahulwalia (later replaced by Nneka Elliott) and Pooja Handa (later replaced by Travis Dhanraj)[1][2]
In August 2011, CP24 once again extended its breakfast show to include Before Breakfast, hosted by Lindsey Deluce, which airs weekdays from 5:00 a.m. - 5:30 a.m.[3][4]
On March 26, 2019 CP24 Breakfast celebrated their 10th anniversary and many former hosts returned.
2019 - Present Personality Changes
- September 2019 - Jamie Gutfreund announced he was moving to another position on CP24 and was leaving the CP24 Breakfast Weekend show, as well as the live eye host for the weekday show. He was replaced with Brandon Gonez from Your Morning.
- March 18th 2021, - Cam Woolley announced he would be retiring after 13 years on the morning show. During his time on CP24 Breakfast Woolley covered every major story in Toronto and was part of the original cast of CP24 Breakfast. He officially retired on April 15 2021. His final show was a well celebrated show featuring many well wishers and messages from viewers and community figures.
- August 10th, 2021 - Pooja Handa unexpectedly announced just 10 minutes before the ending of the days show that it would be her last and she would be departing CP24 Breakfast after 6 years of host of the Weekday show. A replacement has yet to be announced.
- August 27th, 2021 - Only weeks after Pooja Handa made a surprise departure, News Anchor Gurdeep Ahluwalia also unexpectedly left the show leaving in the same fashion as Handa only making the announcement 10 minutes before the show ends. These departures are unusual as most past departures have featured a fan faired show with many goodbye messages. The official social media accounts of CP24 and CP24 Breakfast also failed to mention or post about either Ahluwalia or Handa's departures. It was announced that Nick Dixon would immediately take over as News Anchor.
Weekend Edition changes
In 2020 both Kelly Linehan and Brandon Gonez departed CP24, meaning Kayla Williams was left as the only Weekend Edition host up until February 2021. Due to changes caused by COVID-19 the weekend show was shortened by two hours (7:00 am to 9:00 am) and has taken on a format similar to the rest of the CP24 programing without in-studio guests and a focus on the news and latest stories.
Set
The CP24 studio is on the second floor of 299 Queen Street West. Large north-facing windows look out towards Queen Street. The set and newsroom is home to CP24 Breakfast and most of the other CP24-produced programming. During the summer months the breakfast show also uses an outdoor patio for some broadcasts.
Criticisms
The show was criticized a lot on the hosts' banter level and a less serious format than CP24's rest-of-the-day journalistic output.[5]
Notable presenters
Weekdays
- Hosts: George Lagogianes, Mika Midolo, Bill Coulter
- Remote Host: Jee-Yun Lee
- Reporter:
Weekends
- Hosts: Rotating anchors
- Weather:
Former notable presenters
- Melissa Grelo former host
- Steve Antony former host
- Lindsey Deluce former News Anchor
- Ann Rohmer former News Anchor
- Jamie Gutfreund former Live Eye Reporter, Weekend Host / Anchor
- Cam Woolley former Reporter
- Pooja Handa former host
- Gurdeep Ahluwalia former host
References
- ^ CP24 BREAKFAST Served Fresh Seven Days A Week Archived 2011-03-17 at the Wayback Machine CTVglobemedia press release, published March 14, 2011.
- ^ Daily dose of CP24 Breakfast starts this weekend www.cp24.com, published March 17, 2011,
- ^ CP24 Breakfast show page which includes Before Breakfast
- ^ CP24 BREAKFAST Begins Broadcasting at 5 a.m. as Toronto’s First Morning News Show Bell Media press release, retrieved August 23, 2011.
- ^ "CP24 Breakfast is Not Breakfast Television". 27 March 2009.