Sandie Rinaldo celebrates 50th anniversary with CTV

Sandie Rinaldo is celebrating a milestone with the CTV network that will culminate in a special, set to air this Friday, across its platforms.

Rinaldo, the weekend anchor for CTV National News and a reporter for flagship investigative program, W5, is marking 50 years with the network this month. l’m Sandie Rinaldo, which will air at 9 p.m. ET on May 12, diving into how the veteran reporter’s upbringing as the daughter of Holocaust survivors shaped her own journey and profoundly influenced her work as a journalist.

“Reaching this 50-year milestone, I am reflecting on my experiences at CTV News, the parts of my life that have been public all these years, and the things about myself I’ve kept private,” said Rinaldo, in a release from Bell Media. “As a journalist, I’ve always been reluctant to reveal too much. After all, I report on other people’s stories, not my own. But as I take a moment to pause and reflect, I think it’s time. I hope viewers enjoy taking a look back with me, and I look forward to continuing to tell important stories here at CTV News.”

Rinaldo got her start in television in the 1960s as a dancer on CBC-TV youth series, Where It’s At. She was hired at CTV a week after her graduation from the York University Fine Arts program in 1973, initially as a junior secretary to News Director Donald Cameron. Rinaldo eventually moved into the role of production manager and later researcher for W5, before going on to report for CTV National News and Canada AM. She started anchoring on Canada AM in 1980, establishing herself as the first woman in the country to hold a full-time national anchor position. She became weekend anchor of CTV National News in 1985 and since Lloyd Robertson’s retirement in 2011, has served as the newscast’s main back-up anchor, in addition to anchoring on CTV News Channel three days a week since 2009.

Over her five decades with the network, Rinaldo has interviewed hundreds of key newsmakers. CTV says another hour-long network special, Sandie Rinaldo’s 50/50, is set to air later this summer featuring some of her most memorable interviews, including Justin Bieber, John Candy, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Capt. (ret’d) Trevor Greene, Wayne Gretzky, Rick Hansen, Gordon Lightfoot, William Shatner, Martin Short, and Margaret Trudeau (with a cameo from a young Justin Trudeau).

“Sandie Rinaldo is a trailblazer in Canadian journalism, and on behalf of everyone here at CTV News, I’d like to congratulate her on a half-century of excellence,” added Richard Gray, Vice President, News, Bell Media. “Sandie has been a trusted voice for viewers across Canada for decades, and we look forward to her continuing to deliver the stories that matter most to our viewers for years to come.”

Among other accolades, Rinaldo received the RTDNA (Radio Television Digital News Association) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

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