CBC to air PWHL games on revamped Hockey Night in Canada this fall

Hockey Night in Canada will return to Canadian airwaves this fall after CBC announced Monday it is bringing back the storied brand as an occasional Saturday night home of Professional Women’s Hockey League broadcasts.

The move comes three months after CBC and Sportsnet shocked fans by announcing Hockey Night in Canada was ending its 74-year run as a weekly TV showcase of the NHL.

The public broadcaster will feature eight PWHL games over the season as a centrepiece of CBC Sports Primetime, a new Saturday night show hosted by Andi Petrillo. After 12 years under the control of Sportsnet, the show is being rebranded as CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada. Like its predecessor, it will feature pre- and postgame panel analysis.

CBC said it would disclose talent and other programming details over the coming weeks.

The first game, on December 5, will feature the reigning Walter Cup champions Montréal Victoire facing off against PWHL Hamilton, an expansion club that does not yet have a team nickname.

The rest of the HNIC schedule will be released Friday, Oct. 2. All of the PWHL games airing as part of the new Hockey Night in Canada will include at least one Canadian team.

The rest of the league’s games will be shared by multiple Canadian broadcasters including CBC, Sportsnet, TSN, and Amazon’s Prime streaming service, as they were last season. In total, CBC will air approximately two dozen games across the entire regular season.

“Hockey in this country is more than just the NHL and therefore Hockey Night in Canada should reflect what hockey has become to Canada,” Chris Wilson, CBC’s executive director of sports and Olympics, said in an interview.

“For us to take this brand that has been up until now associated with NHL hockey, and has played such an important role in Canadian sports culture, and put it on women’s hockey and the PWHL specifically, I just think sends a really important cultural message about the importance Canadians place in hockey and the importance CBC places on women’s sports, in terms of elevating and making sure there’s an equally big stage for those athletes to shine on.”

Joel Darling, the longtime executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada who has been with the show for more than 20 years, stretching back to its original tenure on CBC before the Rogers takeover, will oversee the new HNIC.

“Hockey Night in Canada is a fixture in Canadian sports culture, and its Saturday night schedule has ritually captivated hockey fans for nearly a century,” Amy Scheer, PWHL executive vice president of business operations, said in a press release issued by CBC. “Our partnership with CBC has been instrumental in the accessibility and growth of the league, and the opportunity to be part of this iconic brand represents another groundbreaking step for the PWHL to connect with our fans and forge new traditions together.”

In the interview, Wilson acknowledged that putting games up against the NHL’s primary weekly showcase on Saturday nights, on Sportsnet, could provide tough competition for the PWHL, but he is confident in the league’s potential.

“Our research shows that there’s a pretty sizable chunk of Canadians watching TV on Saturday night that are not watching (NHL) hockey,” he said. “We think there’s opportunity. I have no idea what to expect, but we’re excited and committed to it regardless, and I am optimistic that when people discover the quality of the PWHL play, I think they’re going to like it.”

Last year’s games on CBC, which aired on Saturday afternoons, drew a total audience of about four million viewers, with an average audience per game of 78,000. “We’re optimistic that we can grow that,” said Wilson. “It’s such a young league. It still doesn’t have 100 per cent name recognition. So we’re excited to help them build over time.”

Wilson suggested that the Hockey Night in Canada brand could also be used in the future for other high-profile games. “We have a hockey strategy,” he said. “We have some pretty important hockey games that happen on CBC every four years. So who knows what could happen with it there. It might be fun.”

CBC has the rights to the Winter Olympics in 2030.

CBC also announced on Monday that its French-language counterpart, Radio-Canada, had signed an exclusive deal for the radio broadcast rights for all Victoire games in Canada this season.

Radio-Canada will also launch its own weekly sports show, on Sundays. Rendez-vous Podium, hosted by Jacinthe Taillon, will launch October 18.

CBC Sports Primetime will launch this weekend with coverage of the Canada Super60 Cricket League tournament in Vancouver. CBC previously announced the Saturday night show will also feature Grand Slam of Curling and ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix coverage.