Network: CTV Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1962 to 1973
Broadcast Medium: Television
When CTV emerged as Canada’s second national television network, it was no surprise when a show with Pierre Berton’s name on appeared on the CTV schedule. Following CTV’s abortive attempt to steal audiences away from the CBC’s 11:00pm newscast with their 10:55pm show Network, they hired Berton to host an eponymous one-hour interview show from eleven to midnight.
CTV staff producer Ross Maclean lined up a series of tapings for Berton both in Toronto and internationally, and many famous names consented to appear on the show, both during its brief tenure at CTV and in its subsequent productions out of CHCH Hamilton, which were widely syndicated by Screen Gems.
The Pierre Berton Show was seen on CTV for the latter part of the 1962-63 season, but when the network moved its newscast to go head-to-head with the CBC at 11:00pm, there was no place in the schedule for a late-night ‘chat show’, and the Berton crew packed up their tents and migrated west down the Queen Elizabeth Way to their new base in Hamilton.