CBC is canceling the New Year’s Eve special due to “financial pressure.”

TORONTO – New Year’s Eve will look a lot different on CBC-TV this year.

Canada’s public broadcaster told The Canadian Press on Friday that “financial constraints” had led the broadcaster to cancel this year’s countdown, which slowly built toward midnight with musical performances and a fireworks display.

This year, CBC plans to air a new special, “Just For Laughs,” hosted by comedian Mae Martin, on Sundays at 11 p.m. in most markets. The hour-long recorded show does not include a countdown.

At the start of the new year, episodes of “Comedy Night with Rick Mercer” will follow at midnight. The programs are also streamed on CBC Gem.

It’s a notable change for CBC, which has long been a trusted destination for viewers on this momentous evening.

For more than two decades, the Royal Canadian Air Farce hosted a New Year’s Eve special until it was canceled in 2019.

A CBC representative said the channel began producing a live countdown special for the first time in 2017, marking a new tradition to mark Canada’s bicentennial.

The program spanned all time zones in the country and featured musicians on location in key cities. As the evening’s emcee, Mercer was central to many of those years.

“Since then, this live special format has become increasingly more expensive to produce,” CBC spokesman Kerry Kelly said in an email.

Homemade New Year’s Eve specials have been hard to come by in recent years.

This year, Citytv will continue its recent tradition of airing the US-produced “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest”, while in 2024 Global will host a repeat of its political talk “The West Block” after local news.

CTV will repeat the entertainment newsmagazine special “etalk Presents: A Toast to 2023” in some markets and classic television shows in others.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2023.