Anchors aweigh: Alan Carter and Farah Nasser’s maiden voyage

In some aspects, Leslie Roberts had it easy being a solo anchor.

No silly banter to worry about. Banter is hard. Look at any stilted, bug-eyed celebrity reading off a cue card at the Academy Awards; and they’re supposed to be the professionals.

Global’s new anchors Farah Nasser and Alan Carter, in that sense, did a bang-up job when they debuted Monday evening. Nasser’s warmth is a nice counterpoint to the mostly grim-faced Carter.

Carter is at his best asking prickly questions at Queen’s Park as opposed to forced jocularity. And when he gets a little too ranty talking about Conservative government giveaways, Nasser seems to smooth things over.

Global problematically decided to lead off with the sauciest as opposed to the strongest story of the day.

The hacking of the Ashley Madison website led into a too long and pointless streeter about infidelity. It was perhaps an effort to be part of the larger social media conversation, but it ended up pandering to the viewer rather than leading with the more solid Ottawa child care benefit story.

The hour-long news cast had stories on the Pan Am Games, gridlock in the GTA and apartment safety issues. It also relied on correspondents from Entertainment Tonight Canada to get some celebrity click bait up high.

The debut show also featured a “Know Your Anchor Game” that had the two hosts quizzing each other on their personal lives.

The most scary moment of the night? That’s Nasser rapping WuTang Clang. Overall, though, a good debut, poor rapping skills excluded.