Breakfast Television


Breakfast Television is the branding used for morning shows broadcast by stations of Rogers Media's television network Citytv. As of September 2019, versions of BT are broadcast in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary; versions used to be broadcast in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Montreal, but have been cancelled and replaced with alternative programming. The version broadcast by the Atlantic Satellite Network continued to use the brand under licence from Rogers until 2011, when it was re-launched as CTV Morning Live upon the service's rebranding as CTV Two Atlantic.
On September 5, 2011, each of the local editions of Breakfast Television across all of the Citytv owned-and-operated stations began starting a half-hour earlier, running from 5:30–9 a.m. In April 2012, the Winnipeg edition reverted to the 6-9 a.m. runtime.
In September 2019, the Montreal version of the program was discontinued, while the Calgary and Vancouver versions were re-launched on September 23, 2019 using a "hybrid" format incorporating segments of national interest from the Toronto version.

Toronto edition

Breakfast Television premiered on September 9, 1989 with co-hosts Ann Rohmer and David Onley, with MuchMusic VJ Steve Anthony broadcasting from a different spot around the area each day. Kevin Frankish handled news updates from the CityPulse newsroom. From 1995 to 2008, BT was simulcast on then-sister station CKVR in Barrie, with VRLand News inserts replacing the CityPulse/CityNews segments.
Co-host Liza Fromer quit her job at BT in July 2006, days after the birth of her child. Kevin Frankish has blogged that her departure from the show was "on the absolute best of terms". BT has encouraged people to send audition tapes for consideration. During the summer of 2006, a number of CHUM personalities were invited to guest co-host with Kevin Frankish in the search for the next permanent host. The guest hosts included CityNews sports anchor Kathryn Humphreys, health specialist Laura DiBattista, consumer specialist Jee-Yun-Lee, former Citytv weather specialist Nalini Sharma, former reporter Melissa Grelo, etalk correspondent Tracy Melchor, BT's own Jennifer Valentyne, and Star!'s Dina Pugliese. On October 13, 2006, Dina Pugliese became the new co-host of the show.
Every August since 2005, BT has organized a "Viewer Appreciation Day", held in the BT parking lot. Gates open at 6 a.m., and closed due to capacity crowds early into 7 a.m. Some people began camping out at BT at 5:30 p.m. the day before the 2006 Viewer Appreciation Day. Breakfast Television has also held other events, such as a successful world record attempt and a Christmas party. The BT Viewer Appreciation Day has since been cancelled, with only the Christmas Party remaining.
Just as many people within the CityNews team started off on the CHUM phoneline, both Jennifer Valentyne and producer Kevin Forget started by working at "the BT Diner".
Kevin Frankish has publicly discussed his panic attacks with viewers, on air.
On April 1, 2016 just as the show finished airing, a post on the BT Toronto's Facebook page was made in regards to Jennifer Valentyne not being a part of the show anymore. With it being April Fool's Day many people thinking this was a joke but that was not the case. Kevin and Dina both addressed this over Twitter confirming that this was in fact true to fans asking. Later that evening, on Jennifer's Facebook page she released a statement confirming that it was in fact true. BT decided to eliminate all Live Eye's across the country to give fans more of what they wanted. Many offered love and support over various social media accounts including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to Jennifer and the rest of the BT crew.
In March 2019, BT Toronto hosted a week-long kid's competition called BT Kids Got Talent Week, where children showed their talent on the show. It was hosted by BT's Dina Pugliese and Devo Brown.
In April 2020, during an interview on Breakfast Television, Simon Cowell announced a spin-off version of the show called Canadian Family's Got Talent carried out virtually by Citytv during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The contest, presented by Canadian Tire, ran from April 27 to May 26, and was judged by Cowell alongside hosts Dina Pugliese and Devo Brown. The contest was won by Toronto-based singing trio CZN.
In July 2020, Roger Peterson announced that he would be leaving BT in a Twitter post.

Notable on-air presenters

Current

Anchors/hosts
CKVU launched Breakfast Television in 2002. The original hosts of Breakfast Television were Michael Eckford and Fiona Forbes, then they were replaced by Shane Foxman and Beverley Mahood, and since 2005, Simi Sara and Dave Gerry hosted the program, but as of August 13, 2008, they were let go.
On January 19, 2010, the length of BT was shortened from four hours to three hours, and six employees laid off as a result of "severe financial issues" with the Citytv stations.
A new format for Breakfast Television debuted in September 2008, with a new traffic and TransLink reporter. As part of Rogers Media's May 3, 2012 renewal of its affiliation agreement with Jim Pattison Group-owned Citytv affiliates CKPG-TV/Prince George, CFJC-TV/Kamloops and CHAT-TV/Medicine Hat, the three stations will begin simulcasting the Vancouver edition of Breakfast Television on September 1, 2012 as part of an expansion of Citytv programming on the stations, which will follow the program grid of CKVU.
On September 5, 2019, Rogers laid off 4 employees from CKVU and placed Breakfast Television on hiatus until September 23. At this time the program was relaunched with a new hybrid format, consisting of a mixture of local content with national entertainment and lifestyle segments produced from Toronto.

Notable on-air presenters

Current

purchased Craig Media in late 2004. The $265 million deal included, among other things, Craig's three A-Channel stations (CKAL-TV in Calgary, Alberta; CKEM-TV in Edmonton, Alberta and CHMI-TV in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In February 2005, CHUM announced that the A-Channel stations would be relaunched as Citytv stations by that fall. The morning show on the original A-Channel stations, The Big Breakfast, was relaunched as Breakfast Television on August 2, 2005 alongside their re-branding as Citytv. The A-Channel brand was subsequently transferred to CHUM's NewNet stations, whose own morning programs were retitled A-Channel Morning.
As in Vancouver, Rogers made cuts to Breakfast Television in Calgary in September 2019, placing the program on hiatus and re-launching it on September 23 with the same, aforementioned format changes.

Calgary presenters

Current presenters

Winnipeg

in Winnipeg, Manitoba produced a version of Breakfast Television from August 2, 2005 to January 6, 2015 - the station was purchased along with CKAL-DT in Calgary and CKEM-DT in Edmonton. The final hosts were Courtney Ketchen, Jeremy John, Jenna Khan and Drew Kozub. It was replaced with a simulcast of Wheeler in the Morning—the morning show of sister radio station CITI-FM—starting on January 12, 2015. Khan and Kozub were retained as co-hosts for news and entertainment segments shown during the program on television in place of music.

Notable former presenters

From 1992 to 2011, the Atlantic Satellite Network in Atlantic Canada, now known as CTV Two Atlantic, aired its own local version of BT. At the time of its launch, ASN and Citytv were both owned by CHUM Limited, and both channels had a similar overall movies-focused format. The Atlantic edition of BT was similar to the Toronto version, but with a greater emphasis on the culture of the region, as matters such as commuter traffic are typically less of a concern in Atlantic Canada.
ASN was acquired by Baton Broadcasting in 1997, but was permitted to continue using Breakfast Television as the title of its morning show. In August 2011, the program was re-branded as CTV Morning Live, in keeping with the launch of local morning shows under the same title on CTV and CTV Two stations in various parts of Canada.

Edmonton

On May 7, 2015, Rogers announced the cancellation of Breakfast Television in Edmonton as part of cutbacks. It was replaced by a spin-off known as Dinner Television, which was a two-hour weeknight newsmagazine which did not contain original news reporting. Encores of the previous edition of Dinner Television with an "L-bar" displaying updated news and weather information were broadcast during its former morning timeslot. Dinner Television was subsequently cancelled and replaced by the newly-relaunched CityNews in 2017. The morning timeslot is now filled by CityLine.

Notable former presenters

Rogers was granted approval by the CRTC on December 20, 2012 to acquire CJNT Montreal and convert it from a multicultural station to a fully English Citytv station. As part of the approval, Rogers had until September 1, 2013 to produce local programming on the station, which included a three-hour Montreal edition of Breakfast Television.
On June 6, 2013, Rogers announced that the Montreal edition of Breakfast Television would premiere on August 26, 2013, and would be hosted by Alexandre Despatie and Joanne Vrakas. Despatie left the program in 2015, and was succeeded by Derick Fage.
On September 5, 2019, Rogers Media announced the cancellation of Breakfast Television Montreal, effective immediately. Colette Watson, senior vice-president of television and broadcast operations at Rogers Media, stated: "This was a difficult decision, but at the end of the day, the show was not sustainable".

Notable former presenters