CBC cancels New Year's Eve party due to “financial pressures”

As reported by the Public Broadcasting Corporation, Friday Canadian Press “Financial pressures” prompted CBC to cancel this year’s famous countdown, which led to midnight with musical performances and fireworks, since 2017.

CBC instead plans to broadcast this year's “Just For Laughs” concert, hosted by Canadian comedian Mae Martin, on Sunday evening at 11 p.m. in most markets across the country. The hour-long show, which was taped last summer in Montreal, will not include a countdown until 2024.

Then the new year begins on CBC by rebroadcasting episodes of the comedy program “Comedy Night with Rick Mercer,” for four hours.

This is a big change for the CBC, which has long been a reliable haven for viewers on this particular evening. For more than twenty years, comedians with the Royal Canadian Air Farce Troupe presented a New Year's Eve special, until its cancellation in 2019.

A CBC representative said the broadcaster began producing the live countdown special in 2017, starting a new tradition to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday.

The special, often hosted by Rick Mercer, traveled across time zones in Canada to showcase artists on the ground in major cities across the country.

“Since that time, this special live format has become increasingly expensive to produce,” CBC spokesperson Kerry Kelly said in an email.