Global Sunday was a Canadian news magazine television program which aired Sunday evenings on the Global Television Network. The program was launched in September 2001, with Charles Adler as host. Run separately from the rest of Global's news division, the program often reflected the political views of Global's founder, Israel Asper and the Asper family, and was designed to showcase a Western Canadian perspective on Canadian political affairs.
The program ran a mix of features reporting and interviews, effectively acting as a cross between a newsmagazine and an American-style Sunday talk show, and aired reportage and panel discussions featuring journalists from both Global News and the network's co-owned CanWest News Service network of newspapers.
Hosts and features
As a right-wing voice in Canadian television, the show developed a loyal audience, and was broadcast weekly from studios in Calgary, the cultural hotbed of Canadian conservatism.
Adler, who described his hosting style on the program as "a mix of Larry King, Ted Koppel and Vince McMahon", However, not wishing to continue his schedule of weekly flights to Calgary, Adler resigned after a year. The program was then hosted for the next number of months by a rotating roster of guest hosts, both Global News personalities and outside figures.
In early 2003, Global named a permanent host in Danielle Smith, who at the time was an editorial writer for the Calgary Herald.
Cancellation
With the launch of Global National<nowiki>'</nowiki>s weekend edition in February 2005, the program lost its coveted early-evening timeslot. Ratings and resources both dwindled, and the decision was made in August 2005 to cancel Global Sunday. The network replaced it with Global Currents, which aired documentary reports, and merged some other features, including "The Final Round", into the Sunday edition of Global National.
In 2011, Global resumed airing a weekly national public affairs show with The West Block.