The Observer was a weekly hour-long magazine program, broadcast on the CBC on stations in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, The Observer included a range of features on arts, culture, and current events.

The program employed a "cover girl," a different young woman each week, who would provide viewers with notes on what was coming up in the broadcast.

Starting June 1964, the program contracted to a half-hour, but multiplied into a twice-weekly broadcast for a summer series, called The Observer: Summer Edition. In October, the Summer Edition was absorbed as part of Across Canada, the series of public affairs programs that originated in different production centres each day.