News

First the facts: Preliminary viewer numbers for the first, souped-up edition of The National on CBC on Monday night suggest the program drew 704,000 viewers at 10 p.m. As usually happens, the numbers went down at about 10:20, when people figured they'd got their news fix. About 573,000 were watching after that.

Context here – CTV National News at 11 p.m. drew 1.2 million viewers. Earlier in the day, Global National had 1.1 million at 5:30 p.m. CBC's numbers for The National would probably be challenged by CBC, of course. The darn thing is on CBC News Network (a.k.a. Newsworld) at 9 p.m. and, like most broadcasters, CBC likes to bundle the numbers together.

Well, whatever. The numbers for Monday at 10 p.m. on the main CBC network stand.

And here's a fascinating fact for you – Discovery Channel topped The National 's numbers at 10 p.m. on Monday by drawing 730,000 viewers to Canada's Worst Driver . Yes, you read correctly. A cable channel airing the fifth edition of Canada's Worst Driver had more viewers than the very heavily hyped new The National on CBC.

What to make of this? Well, one is tempted to go with the gut instinct here and proclaim that Canada's Worst Driver , on cable, got more viewers than Canada's Worst Newscast, on over-the-air TV.

The temptation is strengthened by your views. Yes, yours. After asking for it, I've been inundated by your response. Negative, negative, negative. Okay, one person said that having a story about the Royal Family as No. 2 on the National news agenda was just fine – “I'd rather see them on TV than most of the classless vulgarians who usually populate it.”

However, nobody much likes the standing-up routine on The National , or the flashing lights and antics of the giddy anchors on CBC News Network. Among other things, people miss that nice Fred Langan doing the business news in late afternoon. (Actually he's on mid-morning, standing up, of course, and feeding business-news bits to Suhana Meharchand.

People are riled that the BBC World News has disappeared from the 6 p.m. slot. There is also a general mystification about the purpose and role of Anne-Marie Mediwake, who has a short shift on CBC News Network from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Nice haircut and all, people say, but they wonder how much a person gets paid for smiling and reading a teleprompter for two hours on weekdays. A giant of Canadian journalism Ms. Mediwake is not.

“We even felt the new studio looked like a shopping counter with Pastor Mansbridge being the overtowering shopkeeper and the young females coming in as customers,” was one view. “Peter M. walking around or standing around, something like a game-show host. Which the show might have been, for all the news I got from it,” was another.

Here's more – “The new CBC news format is farcical, tedious, and soporific. Mansbridge's new suit is ‘pretty' but does not fit with the glass table/counter and the ridiculous new format. With everyone standing, the presentation looks uncomfortable and confrontational.”

And more – “How stupid do they think the audience is? But the banter between reporters is even worse on this new program and totally unreal. The stories are much too bitty and the whole program comes across as unprofessional.”

Yet more – “Wendy Mesley running around on the flu issue as if she wanted to get a jump on Halloween.” And that's merely a small sample.

Back to the numbers. The Lang & O'Leary Exchange on the CBC News Network (called “CNN eh?” by one wag who wrote to me) drew 72,000 at 4:30 p.m., which CBC says is more than double the time-period average.

Power & Politics (Evan Solomon towering over guests at 5 p.m.) drew 42,000, “about on par with the time period,” says CBC.

But the memorable number is 704,000 for The National at 10 p.m. on CBC-TV, a channel that every single Canadian can access, free. And cable channel Discovery getting 730,000 viewers for Canada's Worst Driver . Obviously, people like watching accidents, crashes and disasters unfold. Well, check out the new National , then.

Also airing:

Grey's Anatomy (ABC, CTV, 9 p.m.) goes all medical tonight. Here's the gist: “When Isaac, the hospital lab tech, has an inoperable tumour wrapped around his spine, he turns to Dr. Derek Shepherd to do the impossible, and Derek tests the Chief's authority when the Chief objects to moving forward with the risky surgery.” At this point the series seems to be trying to create interest in secondary characters. That's happening because, one assumes, Ellen Pompeo, who plays Meredith, got knocked-up and needs time off, and Katherine Heigl, who plays Izzie, is away making some awful movie.

Masterworks: Bacon's Arena (TVOntario, 10 p.m.) is a fine examination of the life and work of painter Francis Bacon. He's generally acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the 20th century. Nominated for an International Emmy.