For Immediate Release: December 13, 2018 Tweet this Release: www.airfarce.com/press RING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH AIR FARCE NEW YEAR’S EVE ON CBC, DECEMBER 31 TROUPE CELEBRATES 45TH ANNIVERSARY Tommy Chong, Lauren Lee Smith, and Natalie Spooner guest star Justin Trudeau, Donald Trump, Chrystia Freeland, Mark Zuckerberg, Theresa May, and the Royal Family are in the hot seat Toronto (December 13, 2018) – AIR FARCE, one of the most acclaimed homegrown comedy troupes, is turning 45. The Farce will be celebrating this landmark anniversary skewering the biggest news stories, events, people, and pop culture phenomena of the year with its longstanding year-end ritual AIR FARCE NEW YEAR’S EVE, premiering Monday, December 31 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC, with an encore broadcast later the same evening at 12:10 a.m. (12:40 NT). AIR FARCE NEW YEAR'S EVE is one of the highest-rated entertainment specials in the country. An average audience of 1.8 million Canadians watched AIR FARCE NEW YEAR’S EVE last year on CBC, with a total reach of 3.7 million viewers over the course of the show.* Click on the link for AIR FARCE Photos and Bios AIR FARCE NEW YEAR’S EVE looks back at the year that was and takes aim at climate change, the fallout of the #MeToo movement, Brexit, the Trans Mountain Pipeline, the legalization of marijuana and the Queen welcoming a new royal great-grandchild. Black Panther battles America’s latest threat – extreme racism – and PM Justin Trudeau is #sorrynotsorry in a special musical tribute set to Maroon 5 chart-topper Girls Like You. Capping off the special is Doctor Von Rikkengord (Don Ferguson) rolling out the F-BOMB. A longstanding tradition, the Farce Bomb is filled with monstrously messy guck and dropped from 50 feet above onto the top five most irritating targets of 2018. What began as a troupe of five in 1973, with Don Ferguson, Luba Goy, the late Roger Abbott, John Morgan, and Dave Broadfoot, went on to decades of success on radio and television and is now a multi-award-winning, intergenerational cast of seven. AIR FARCE NEW YEAR’S EVE 2018 stars founding troupe members Ferguson and Goy, and familiar faces Jessica Holmes (The Holmes Show, The Itch), Craig Lauzon (Fool Canada, The Ron James Show), Darryl Hinds (The Beaverton, Little Mosque on the Prairie), Chris Wilson (What Would Sal Do?, Meet the Family) and Isabel Kanaan (This Art Works!, Haunted or Hoax). This year’s special guests include: Canadian-American comedian, actor, writer, director, musician and cannabis rights activist Tommy Chong (Cheech and Chong, That '70s Show); actress Lauren Lee Smith (Frankie Drake Mysteries, The Shape of Water); and hockey champion Natalie Spooner, the first woman in hockey history to claim the gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games and the Clarkson Cup in the same year. AIR FARCE NEW YEAR'S EVE celebrated its 25th year of the television broadcast in 2017. The annual one-hour New Year’s Eve special has featured nearly 200 illustrious guests over the years, the very first being former troupe member Dave Broadfoot and Prime Minister Kim Campbell. Guests that followed include: Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau, Paul Martin, Jean Chrétien and Joe Clark; news anchors Peter Mansbridge, Lloyd Robertson and Lisa LaFlamme; TV personalities Don Cherry, Ron MacLean, Mike Holmes and David Suzuki; comedians Brent Butt, Rick Mercer, Colin Mochrie, Russell Peters and Mary Walsh; actors Megan Follows, Graham Greene, Paul Gross, and Sheila McCarthy; musical guests Jann Arden, Measha Brueggergosman, Jim Cuddy, Anne Murray, and Serena Ryder; athletes Kurt Browning, Mike “Pinball” Clemons, Doug Gilmour, Milos Raonic, Elvis Stojko and Jamie Salé; authors Margaret Atwood and David Chilton; filmmaker David Cronenberg; and astronaut Chris Hadfield, to name a few. AIR FARCE NEW YEAR’S EVE is written by headwriters Kevin Wallis and Wayne Testori, along with Carly Heffernan and Rob Lindsay. Contributing writers are Darryl Hinds, Jessica Holmes, Isabel Kanaan, Chris Wilson, Diana Frances, Rakhee Morzaria, Sam Mullins and Preeti Torul. The special is directed by Rob Lindsay and Wayne Moss. AIR FARCE NEW YEAR’S EVE is produced by Air Farce Productions in association with CBC. Executive Producer is Don Ferguson. Senior Producer is Lucy Stewart. Producers are Rob Lindsay, Wayne Testori, and Kevin Wallis. About AIR FARCE: May the Farce be with you! What began as a topical sketch comedy troupe (1970), morphed into the AIR FARCE (1973) skewering Canadian politics, current affairs and pop culture. It grew into a radio series running for 24 seasons on CBC Radio (1973-97), spawning national concert tours, live stage productions, home audio and video releases, a book, and several television specials. It became a weekly television series and ran for 16 highly successful seasons on CBC-TV (1993-2008). Its annual New Year’s Eve special (1992–present) celebrated its 25th anniversary last year and continues to be a ratings hit today. AIR FARCE has received many awards and accolades. The troupe became the first Canadian inductees into the International Humour Hall of Fame in 1992 and was inducted into the Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame in 2001. They are the recipient of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 1998 and received a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2000. At the 2000 Gemini Awards, AIR FARCE received both the Earle Grey Award for AIR FARCE’s body of work in Canadian television, and the viewer-voted People’s Choice Award for favourite television program. AIR FARCE is produced by Don Ferguson Productions Ltd. in association with CBC. Visit www.airfarce.com for more information. About CBC/Radio-Canada: CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster. Through our mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain, we play a central role in strengthening Canadian culture. As Canada’s trusted news source, we offer a uniquely Canadian perspective on news, current affairs and world affairs. Our distinctively homegrown entertainment programming draws audiences from across the country. Deeply rooted in communities, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages. We are leading the transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world. *(Source: Numeris TV Meter, Dec. 31, 2017, CBC Total, Ind.2+, Total Canada, AMA & Cume Reach, 8pm & 12:10am ET, generated by InfoSys+TV). For more details, visit: WEBSITE: airfarce.com FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/AirFarceCBC TWITTER: @AirFarceCBC - 30 - For interview requests: Margaret Sirotich, AIR FARCE Publicist, 647-466-1746 or [email protected] Teaghan Hawke, CBC Publicist, 416-205-6863 or [email protected] .