This Hour Has 22 Minutes


This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics with a combination of news parody, sketch comedy, and satirical editorials. Originally featuring Cathy Jones, Rick Mercer, Greg Thomey, and Mary Walsh, the series featured satirical sketches of the weekly news and Canadian political events. The show's format is a mock news program, intercut with comic sketches, parody commercials, and humorous interviews of public figures.
Its full name is a parody of This Hour Has Seven Days, a CBC news magazine from the 1960s; the "22 Minutes" refers to the fact that a half-hour television program in Canada and the US is typically 22 minutes long with eight minutes of commercials. Jones and Walsh had previously worked together on the sketch comedy series CODCO, on which Thomey sometimes appeared as a guest. Mercer had been a notable young writer and performer on his own, touring several successful one-man shows of comedic political commentary. Salter Street Films produced the series until the 2003–2004 season. Salter Street was acquired in 2001 by Alliance Atlantis, and production of the series was transferred directly to Alliance Atlantis in the twelfth season. In 2005 Halifax Film, a new company formed by Salter co-founder Michael Donovan, took over production of the show. In 2006, Halifax Film merged with Decode Entertainment to form DHX Media, which has produced the show since. In 2019, the rights were sold to IoM Media Ventures, which acquired DHX's Halifax studio the year prior.
Recognized with 24 Gemini Awards and 11 Canadian Comedy Awards, 22 Minutes is taped before a live audience within the old World Trade Centre in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. Its 28th season was taped at the Light House Arts Centre in Halifax with a smaller audience and crew. The series, which originally aired on Mondays for several seasons and later on Fridays, currently airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. on CBC. The series formerly followed the Rick Mercer Report.

Cast

Although each cast member's real name was always shown at the beginning of each episode, at the end of most episodes prior to 2006, one cast member would sign off using their anchor character's name, which is noted below where known. This has now been discontinued, and anchors now regularly address each other by their real names.

Current members

  • Mark Critch, as anchor and various correspondents and sketch characters.
  • Trent McClellan as anchor and various correspondents and sketch characters.
  • Aba Amuquandoh as anchor and various correspondents and sketch characters.
  • Stacey McGunnigle as anchor and various correspondents and sketch characters.
  • Chris Wilson as anchor and various correspondents and sketch characters.
For the 2020 season, the show added Nik Sexton, Tom Stanley and Jon Sturge as field reporters covering the 2020 United States elections.
In addition to the main cast, some members of the show's writing team, including Heidi Brander, Adam Christie, Sophie Buddle, Aisha Brown, Nadine Bhabha, Isabel Kanaan, Brandon Ash-Mohammed, Jordan Foisy, Travis Lindsay, Ajahnis Charley, Dan Dillabough and Leonard Chan, have also appeared in sketches as supporting players. Wilson was promoted to a full cast member in the 2023-24 season, after having also been a writer and supporting player since 2021.
Mark McKinney joined the show in 2025 to play prime minister Mark Carney for the duration of the 2025 Canadian federal election.

Former members

  • Cathy Jones as anchor and various correspondents and sketch characters. Jones was the longest running anchor in the show's history, and the last of the show's four original cast members to leave.
  • Rick Mercer as anchor J. B. Dickson and various correspondents and sketch characters. Mercer left the show to devote more time to Made in Canada; after that show ended he launched Rick Mercer Report, a series similar to 22 Minutes.
  • Colin Mochrie as anchor Anthony St. George and various correspondents and sketch characters. Mochrie left the show after two seasons to pursue his own projects and other movie roles, returning to guest star on the January 27, 2006 episode. Mochrie was the first change to the original cast, following the departure of Rick Mercer.
  • Mary Walsh as anchor Molly McGuire and various correspondents and sketch characters. Walsh appeared less often in season 11 and left the series to pursue her film career and to host Mary Walsh: Open Book, a CBC series in which she moderated a celebrity panel discussing books and literature. Walsh has returned to the show several times as a guest since her departure, most notably for a 2011 appearance in which Walsh, in character as Marg Delahunty, accosted controversial Toronto mayor Rob Ford in his driveway.
  • Greg Thomey as anchor Frank MacMillan and various correspondents and sketch characters. Thomey appeared less often in season 12 and left the show in 2006. In season 22, Thomey has been appearing as a regular guest.
  • Geri Hall, as anchor and various correspondents and sketch characters. Hall had previously been a fill-in anchor in fall 2004 and March 2007.
  • Gavin Crawford as anchor and various correspondents and sketch characters.
  • Shaun Majumder as anchor and various correspondents and sketch characters. He appeared less often in his last couple of years with the show, and eventually left the series to star on Detroit 1-8-7, but returned to the show starting in the 19th season. He was fired from the show in June 2018 and made it public in August 2018, citing creative differences with a producer.
  • Susan Kent as anchor and various correspondents and sketch characters.

    Timeline

Substitute anchors/special correspondents

Substitute news anchors on the series are people who "guest star" on the series for when series regulars are away.
; Talking to Americans
; No Pun Intended
; Babe Bennett
; Marg Delahunty
; Mark Jackson
; Bas MacLaren
; Misses Enid & Eulalia
; Streeters, aka The Rant.
;Max Pointy: A spoof of CBC personality Rex Murphy's political commentaries for The National, performed by Colin Mochrie. Max would start off with a legitimate political issue but end up on an unrelated and generally inane point by the end of his rant. Discontinued when Mochrie left the show.
;That Show Sucked!: with Ma and Eddie Reardon who make fun of TV shows, with Ma saying that whatever show that Eddie watches "Suck" and constantly demanding that he give her "the G. D. clickerbox". Discontinued when Walsh left the show.
;The Quinlan Quints: four quintuplets who live in Buchans, Newfoundland and Labrador – inspired by the fame of the Dionne quintuplets; portrayed by Cathy Jones, Rick Mercer, Greg Thomey and Mary Walsh. Usually interviewed by Mercer's character J. B. Dickson, the Quints would boast about something outlandish that Dickson has a hard time believing until one of the quints spills the beans and reveals that what they were promoting was really a scam. Discontinued when Mochrie left the show.
;Inside Media Counter-spin: A satirical talk show with the host, Heather Coulter, portrayed by Cathy Jones. The host makes blatantly stereotypical statements about her guests.
;Panic Room with Betty Hope: Host Betty Hope parodies Nancy Grace in "breaking news" style segments, in which she interviews someone knowledgeable about a given threat and then spins the facts to make them sound more dramatic and dangerous.
;The Right Answer: Two conservative commentators debate various issues in the news. When one of them makes a point, they hit a chess timer. Discontinued when Mercer left the show.
;The Special Eds: Mercer and Thomey portray two members of the RCMP – Special Constable Ed Cochrane and Special Constable Ed Codner – with questionable ethics. Discontinued when Mercer left the show.
;Nathan Fielder On Your Side: Nathan Fielder plays a consumer affairs reporter who is socially awkward, speaks in a near-monotone, and tends to make his interview subjects uncomfortable. Fielder went on to utilize the persona on the American TV show, Nathan for You.

Crawford's characters

; Stuart McLean
; Uwe Meyer
; Gunter Wilson
; Natasha Stillwell
; Mark Jackson
; Rob Boberston
; Chantal Hébert

Critch's characters

; Rex Murphy
; Danny Williams
; Don Cherry
; Donald Trump
; Caillou

Hall's characters

; Avery Adams, Single Female Voter

Jones' characters

; Sandy Campbell
; Joe Crow
; Mrs. Enid
; Betty Hope
; Janet Tucker

Majumder's characters

; Raj Binder
; Ian Hanomansing
;Barnibus Pine

Mercer's characters

; Billyatropia "Billy" Smithopolis
; Gus Van Gus

Mochrie's characters

; Max Pointy
; Peter Mansbridge

Thomey's characters

; Jerry Boyle
; Ottawa Gargoyle
;Tim MacMillan

Walsh's characters

; Connie Bloor
; Marg Delahunty
; Dakey Dunn

Famous stunts

Jean Poutine

1999–2000 – During the 2000 American election, Rick Mercer approached Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush on a campaign stop in Michigan, asking for comment on the news that Bush had received the endorsement of Canadian prime minister "Jean Poutine". The then-prime minister's name was Jean Chrétien, and he had not endorsed Bush – it is standard practice for the Canadian government not to endorse anyone in a foreign election.
Bush – who had previously stated that "you can't stump me on world leaders" – acknowledged the purported endorsement with a short statement to the 22 Minutes cameras, which aired as part of the show's regular Talking to Americans feature. The Talking To Americans segments – and eventual one-hour special – were produced and directed by Geoff D'Eon.
In his first official state visit to Canada four years later, Bush joked that his "one regret" about the visit was that he'd "hoped to meet Jean Poutine."