Spectacular cross-country New Year’s Eve musical celebration hosted by Rick Mercer on December 31
CBC News Network to feature live coverage of the Parliament Hill ceremonies on New Year’s Eve
Perennial favourites Air Farce and Ron James return with new comedy specials on December 30
CBC will be at the heart of Canada’s sesquicentennial year and is celebrating the start of 2017 with special programming across all platforms including CANADA’S NEW YEAR’S EVE – COUNTDOWN TO 2017 on Saturday, Dec. 31, a spectacular cross-country musical celebration hosted by Rick Mercer. The special event will be broadcast on CBC beginning at 11 p.m. local time PT, MT, CT and ET and at 11:30 p.m. AT and NT and live-streamed at cbc.ca/2017, cbcmusic.ca, youtube.com/cbc and facebook.com/cbccanada2017.
A nation-wide musical celebration, CANADA’S NEW YEAR’S EVE – COUNTDOWN TO 2017 features a star-studded line-up of musical guests performing at venues across Canada on December 31. The special will capture events taking place in Vancouver, Yellowknife, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Fredericton, Halifax and St. John’s. These celebrations will include performances by Canadian artists including JUNO Award-winning and Grammy®-nominated multi-platinum recording artist Carly Rae Jepsen; chart-topping country star Brett Kissel; singer-songwriter Scott Helman; KXO; JUNO Award-winners Walk Off The Earth; The Strumbellas; The Bros. Landreth featuring Begonia; Radio Radio; JUNO Award-winner DJ Shub; Yellowknife Throat Singers; and JUNO Award-winning band, The Sheepdogs.
Earlier in the evening, CBC News Network will be on the air live from 7–9 p.m. ET (4–6 p.m. PT) with a special New Year’s Eve broadcast, CANADA 2017 – NEW YEAR’S EVE LIVE WITH HEATHER HISCOX. The two-hour program will include live coverage from the official ceremony on Parliament Hill, including the re-lighting of the Centennial Flame to include all of Canada’s provinces and territories. The show will also feature reports from cities across the country as they prepare to ring in 2017, including a preview of the CANADA’S NEW YEAR’S EVE – COUNTDOWN TO 2017 show from Parliament Hill. The program will also include a look at the cultural activities and programming planned across the country in 2017 to celebrate Canada’s 150th year.
In addition to streaming coverage of CANADA’S NEW YEAR’S EVE, cbcmusic.ca will be counting down the most essential songs of 2016 with host Raina Douris from 7 p.m.–12 a.m. (7:30 p.m.–12:30 a.m. NT) on New Year’s Eve. The Essential Songs of 2016 is a snapshot of the great music Canadians streamed, heard on the radio and read about online at cbcmusic.ca throughout the past year. On Monday, Jan. 2, Douris will count down CBC Radio 2’s Top 100 Songs of 2016 on RADIO 2 MORNING from 6–9 a.m. (6:30–9:30 NT).
In the days leading up to and following New Year’s Eve, Canadians can celebrate and reflect on the year that was with new comedy specials from perennial favourites Air Farce, Ron James and Just For Laughs, and a concert special from Adele.
AIR FARCE NEW YEAR’S EVE 2016 – Premieres Friday Dec. 30 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT), also airs Saturday Dec. 31 at 10 p.m. CT, ET; 12:05 a.m. PT, MT; 11 p.m. AT; and 12 a.m. NT; and Sunday Jan. 1 at 7 p.m. (7:30 NT)
AIR FARCE NEW YEAR’S EVE 2016 satirizes and salutes the biggest news stories, events, people, and pop-culture phenomena of the past year, from Rihanna to Stranger Things to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The special takes on the year’s biggest crazes, including zombies, Fitbit, and Pokemon Go. Capping off the special is the infamous F-BOMB. A longstanding tradition, AIR FARCE fans sound off on the most irritating targets of the past year at airfarce.com and the top five picks get the richly deserved Farce Bomb filled with monstrously messy guck dropped from 50 feet above.
RON JAMES: TRUE NORTH – Premieres Friday Dec. 30 at 9 p.m. (9:30 p.m. NT), also airs Sunday Jan. 1 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT)
Look back and laugh at the year that was with award-winning comedian Ron James in his ninth one-hour comedy special, RON JAMES: TRUE NORTH, filmed in one of James’ favourite towns, Kingston, Ontario. TRUE NORTH finds Ron James and his poetically charged brand of humour searching for slivers of sanity in a year so categorically ”cuckoo” that he watched dumbstruck as just about every nation on earth but Canada went “to hell in a hand cart.”
ADELE – LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY – CBC Premiere Sunday Jan. 1 at 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. NT)
This special from BBC Worldwide sees megastar Adele perform live at Radio City Music Hall in New York in front of a packed crowd of super-fans and celebrities. The performance was filmed just before the release of Adele’s hugely successful third album 25. Commanding the stage effortlessly, Adele sings Hello and other tracks from 25 including All I Ask and When We Were Young as well as classics Someone Like You and Skyfall.
P.K. SUBBAN: SHOTS FIRED – Premieres Monday Jan. 2 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT)
Last summer at the Just For Laughs Festival, NHL star P.K. Subban returned for an emotional goodbye to Montréal, trading in his skates for a microphone to host P.K. SUBBAN: SHOTS FIRED, a one-of-a-kind one-hour comedy special. Subban throws punch lines instead of punches as he presents a lineup of some of the best comedians working today, including Jeremy Hotz, Nate Bargatze, Dom Irrera, Tom Rhodes, Rebecca Kohler and the Sklar Brothers. Incorporating elements of his charity into his performance, audiences get a glimpse into his very funny comedic side.
Visit cbc.ca/2017 for more information about CBC/Radio-Canada’s special programming plans for 2017 including New Year’s Eve.
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About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. We are Canada’s trusted source of news, information and Canadian entertainment. Deeply rooted in communities all across the country, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages. We also provide international news and information from a uniquely Canadian perspective. In 2017, CBC/Radio-Canada will be at the heart of the celebrations and conversations with special 2017-themed multiplatform programming and events across Canada.
For more information including series synopses, press releases, hi-res images, video clips and bios, please visit the CBC Media Centre at cbc.ca/mediacentre. Follow CBC's publicity team on Twitter @CBC_Publicity.
For more information, please contact:
Simon Bassett, publicist
simon.bassett@cbc.ca
416.205.8533
