in the spring of 2012, as part of a five-year strategy by the CBC to improve its services to six million Canadian homes unserved or underserved by CBC's radio, television and internet services. On September 2, 2013, CBET Windsor expanded its early evening newscast to 90 minutes from 5:30 to 7 p.m., while its 11 p.m. newscast was replaced by CBLT's newscast at that time, differing from most CBC O&Os in other markets where the station carries both an early and late evening newscast of its own. Asha Tomlinson became anchor of the expanded newscast, replacing Amanda Ferguson, who became anchor during Susan Pedler's maternity leave. History Prior to fall 2000, CBC stations produced local newscasts under a variety of titles, including Broadcast One at CBUT, 24 Hours at CBWT Winnipeg, CBC Evening News at CBLT Toronto, Compass at CBCT Charlottetown, and Here & Now at CBNT. These were typically one-hour broadcasts aired at 6:00 p.m. local, 6:30 p.m. NT. 30-minute late local newscasts, in many cases titled Newsfinal, were also aired in most markets at 11:30 p.m. local / midnight NT. The late newscasts were abandoned briefly during the Prime Time News era, resumed in the mid-1990s, and cancelled again in 2000. In early 2000, the CBC (under president Robert Rabinovitch) announced a plan to eliminate local newscasts except in Northern Canada, believing that the dominance of private competitors had made these programs redundant. Local newscasts were to be replaced by a national supper-hour program with limited local inserts. This plan, and particularly the fact that exceptions would not be made for the CBC's highly rated newscasts in Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, led to protests across the country, and most strongly in those two markets. As a compromise, CBC News introduced Canada Now as a replacement for its 6:00 p.m. newscasts outside of the north, which consisted of a half-hour national newscast hosted by Ian Hanomansing in Vancouver, followed by a half-hour local newscast. While the PEI newscast remained relatively strong (as the only newscast produced on the island), ratings dropped across the board, most dramatically in Newfoundland where CBNT's local news ratings decreased by more than 50% between 2000 and 2004. By 2005, the CBC had decided to rethink this strategy and began to expand local news again at certain stations, beginning with CBNT, where an hour-long Here & Now newscast resumed on November 7.