The reviews are coming in slowly for the CBC News rebranding. Here are four prominent Canadian media observers and what they have to say about day one at the new CBC News:

The Toronto Star’s Greg Quill starts his review of the CBC News re-brand with this zinger;

“CBC-TV's revamped news flagship The National bowed in last night, flashing new graphics, a glitzy, wide-open set, a faster pace, a larger reporting crew. Its now-unseated anchor, Peter Mansbridge, plays a cross between a wandering, gracious maître d' and — when he's standing behind the new Plexiglas counter — an avuncular publican pressing messengers to unburden themselves.”

And, his kicker is:

“What The National has gained in speed and visual wallop seems to be at the expense of the appearance of reality. It was all a little, sad to say, self-satisfied and contrived.”

Read the rest (good, bad and ugly) in between here.

Paul Wells blogging at Inkless Wells in a post titled “CBC’s stand-up act” sums up the new rebrand this way:

“I think the good news substantially outweighs the bad here. The newshole the CBC has opened up is immense; each of those new shows clearly has the attention of a lot of hardworking people; they’re clearly not just punching time clocks. Our 2005 relaunch at Maclean’s erred on the side of nervous jumpiness too. There’s the potential here for a news operation that impresses instead of merely dazzling. First they just need to stop flashing all those strobe lights in our eyes.”

The satirical TeamMakers blog is always worth a read when big news goes down at the CBC.

And, Long time television reporter and now blogger Bill Brioux says this at Television Feeds My Family:

“The crazy fast pace caught up with the news which flagged a bit towards the end. Still, a pretty impressive opening. On a night when something is actually happening, CBC will be poised to race along side the story and stay on top of it. Viewers will get a lot more out of the hour--if they can tear themselves away from The Mentalist.”