That which does not kill you, makes you stronger.

It might be the enduring sentiment when the people at cbc’s national evening newscast look back on the last few seasons.

After three years of damage repairs, beginning with the disappointing launch of CBC Prime Time News in November of 1992, today’s top headline is good news. The National seems to be back, not only in name but in numbers.

Midway through this season, audience figures for the revamped news and current affairs hour were up 11% over the same time last year and back to the level of viewership (on average, 1.16 million each night) when the changes were made in 1992.

Topping it off, The National/CBC Prime Time News has picked up 11 Gemini nominations this year, more than any other news program. They include Best Information Series, Best Overall Broadcast Journalist (Brian Stewart), two for Best Reportage (David Halton and Don Murray), and Best Host, Anchor or Interviewer (Hana Gartner).

But the comfortable seat in which The National and The National Magazine with Hana Gartner are now sitting is made all the sweeter by a very public fall from grace and the subsequent rebuilding.

With the launch of Prime Time News, cbc was departing from the tried-and-true format which had brought Knowlton Nash and Barbara Frum into Canadian homes each evening, and the whole kit and caboodle was moving from 10 p.m. to 9 p.m.

In addition to the change in time slot, which executive producer Tony Burman says amounted to ‘moving the cbc’s most important program to what was clearly an inconvenient time for a lot of Canadians,’ the change in format was a hurried affair. ‘They were literally thrown together, and it was organized as the Charlottetown referendum was going on. The people who were asked to bring together the program should have been given more time.’

Burman came on board in January 1993, three months after the initial launch. With five years’ experience on the original National and another five on The Journal, he was handed the task of bringing together groups which had previously existed as two separate units. ‘What I was allowed to do when I joined, was to take the time to make sure the group came together. I think, to a great extent, that’s been achieved. Morale is high and I think there’s a real sense of unity in the program. I think a lot of the old divisions that occurred at the beginning are gone.’

One of the tools used to continue the feel-good feeling within the program and reinstate confidence among viewers was to reclaim the name, The National. Says Burman: ‘It’s symbolic of a certain quality of journalism, and it was a very comfortable return. I think people were and are quite happy and quite proud to be associated with The National.’

Ironically, the unity within has allowed The National to better deal with national discord. Burman believes Canada’s crisis has brought viewers back to the cbc in the evenings.

‘We, both as a program and a network, are particularly strong on matters which relate to the evolution of the country. That was clearly evident during the referendum when we got quite phenomenal audiences, dealing often with issues, like Quebec, that conventional wisdom says people across the country aren’t concerned about.’

Building on the program’s 1995/96 mission statement, which says it will ‘focus on solutions and options more than simply problems,’ The National Magazine portion of The National has been essential for exploring and expanding on the stories and issues of the day. Audiences seem to be responding. With Gartner at the helm, viewership for The National Magazine at mid-season was running slightly ahead of The Journal’s mid-season average of 851,000 in its last season. While viewers for the news portion were up 10% over the same point last year, The National Magazine posted an increase of 13%.

And while Burman attributes some of The National Magazine’s success to timely and practical features like ‘The Friday Survival Guide’ (subtitled ‘How to cope with and understand an increasingly complicated world’), ‘Downside to Downsizing,’ ‘Future of Work,’ and a whole host of magazines devoted, in different ways, to exploring the issue of Canada and Quebec, he also says Gartner has a unique relationship with their viewers. ‘She’s a striking and sympathetic personality, and she’s connected to the audience in a way that’s evident to us all.’

Gartner’s presence is part of another objective outlined in the mission statement: ‘introducing more wit, warmth and irreverence to the program.’ While the traditional values of cbc news have remained, says Burman, they’ve made a concentrated effort to soften up the style and delivery.

‘Periodically, we take ourselves too seriously. This is just an attempt to remind ourselves that there’s room for wit, for elegance, for something other than just a dour treatment of the news. It’s not at all flimsy or superficial, it’s just more a question of style. And again, this season we’re achieving it more than we have in the past.’

Underlying the sense of achievement at The National is a sense of pride. They feel they’ve been able to produce to their own standards of quality while under the gun in terms of uncertainty and diminishing resources.

‘The tv news environment is very different now,’ says Burman. ‘There’s far more choice, far more competition, far less loyalty to one particular channel. The cbc is coping as everyone is coping, but we’re confident that our program is now connecting with a large number of Canadians.’

This year’s 11 Gemini nominations are further fuel for the fire. Says Burman: ‘It’s a reminder to Canadians that, hey, there is a lot of quality programming on the cbc, not only on The National, but throughout the network. It’s not a coincidence.’

‘In programming terms, the long march back for us is over. We’re confident that we’re back.’