Video Hits (Canadian TV series)


Video Hits was a Canadian music video program broadcast nationally on CBC Television from 1984 to 1993. Created by producer Sandra Faire, Video Hits aired weekday afternoons, and featured promotional music videos of the day's top hit songs from Canadian and international artists, along with artist interviews. The show's original host was Samantha Taylor. A similar music video show, Good Rockin' Tonite, also aired on CBC Television on Friday nights concurrently with Video Hits.

History

Video Hits evolved from a CBC Radio show called Coming Attractions. Produced by Sandra Faire in Toronto, Coming Attractions was an entertainment news magazine that ran five days a week. Hosts Patricia White and Bob Karstens presented news from the worlds of music, video, art, theatre, film, TV and fashion. One program per week was devoted solely to music videos, which wound up being the highest-rated segment on Coming Attractions. On October 1, 1984, with MTV gaining in popularity and Canada's own MuchMusic launching that summer, Video Hits premiered with host Samantha Taylor, best known at that time as a radio personality at Toronto's Q-107. Broadcast nationally in Canada, the show was an instant success.
Taylor hosted the show until 1989, until Bryan Elliott took over as host. In 1991, Dan Gallagher assumed hosting duties, and the program's name was changed to Dan Gallagher's Video Hits.
But with videos available elsewhere, ratings for Video Hits dropped sharply, until Video Hits was cancelled in February 1993, airing its last episode on April 2.
The CBC said in 2014 that the entire run of Video Hits no longer exists in their archives. Aside from a handful of short clips available online, all episodes are lost.