q with Tom Power (previously known as Q with Jian Ghomeshi) is a Canadian arts magazine show produced by and airing on CBC Radio One, with syndication to public radio stations in the United States through Public Radio Exchange. The program mainly features interviews with prominent cultural and entertainment figures, though subjects and interviewees also deal with broader cultural topics such as their social, political and business aspects, as well as weekly panels on television/film and music on Mondays and Fridays respectively.
Though not the highest-rated show on CBC Radio One (The Current and As It Happens hold that distinction), Q is the highest rated show in its timeslot in CBC history, surpassing even Peter Gzowski who previously hosted the second hour of Morningside during the slot. The show is also regarded as standing out in CBC Radio One's schedule through attracting a younger, more social-media-adept audience than other CBC Radio programming.
Q launched in April 2007. It was hosted by Jian Ghomeshi until October 2014.
Shad was chosen by the CBC in March 2015 as Qs new permanent host. His official debut as host was April 20. The show was also re-branded as q at the same time.
In August 2016, the CBC announced that Shad would be replaced as host by Tom Power, formerly the host of Radio 2 Morning, in the fall. Power debuted as host on October 24, 2016.
From late March to May 15, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the 10 a.m. broadcast of the program was suspended in favour of an extended broadcast of the network's morning news program The Current; however, Power was heard on The Current as a contributor of arts stories during this period. New episodes of the program still aired in the evening repeat slot, and the program was temporarily added to the schedule of CBC Music, replacing that network's 7-8 p.m. hour of regular programming.
In November 2022 the CBC announced a change to the program's format. Beginning January 30, 2023, the program's length will be reduced from 90 minutes to one hour, and will concentrate more strongly on Power's long-form interviews, while the magazine aspects of the show will be transferred to the new 30-minute show Commotion, to be hosted by Elamin Abdelmahmoud.
Episodes
The program airs live Monday to Friday at 10:00 a.m. (10:30 NT) for 90 minutes, and an abbreviated 60-minute edition is then repeated at 9 p.m. Due to lesser time restraints (such as less time lost to news breaks) the evening repeat is able to air all of the feature content from the 90-minute daytime edition, although some shorter interstitial segments may be edited out. Stations carrying the show in the United States also broadcast the one-hour edition.
It is broadcast mostly from CBC's Toronto studios, although the show also sometimes airs special broadcasts from other Canadian cities.
On Fridays, the show formerly aired for two hours, and included a theme called "Friday Live", where featured musicians are invited for an interview primarily as the opening segment with live performances throughout the program.
History
Q first aired on April 16, 2007, replacing Freestyle in the network's afternoon programming block. It moved to its current time slot, replacing Sounds Like Canada, in fall 2008.
The name was chosen by the staff of the show from a list they themselves had compiled. A test run of the show was made using the name Radar. Other possible names (some clearly tongue-in-cheek) included "State-of the-Arts in Canada", "Awesometown", "Afternoon Delight", "Smells like Canada", "Full Duplex Repeater", "Skybox Three" (the room in Toronto's Rogers Centre where much of the show was created), "Ghomer's Pile", or one even closer to Jian Ghomeshi, the show host of Iranian descent, "Royal Canadian Air Farsi". Names a little closer to the mark included Studio Q and The Cue. According to Ghomeshi, "A couple of the ... suggestions came close", when the name 'Q' was brought up "there was a pause in the room and [the Q team] went 'Yes, that's it.' It felt like the right name. It's an enigmatic letter [they] hope will become associated with the show."
Beginning in 2013, a one-hour weekly spinoff series, Q The Music, was added to the CBC Music schedule, airing a selection of interviews and performances by musicians previously broadcast on the daily program. On April 15, 2015, the show changed its name to the lower case q.
