Apex domains cannot have CNAME records.
Question and response
Question
dig the-wire.com. NS
Answer
the-wire.com. 4 NS simcoe.the-wire.com.
the-wire.com. 4 NS nic.the-wire.com.
Authority
The response has no authority records.
Additional
nic.the-wire.com. 4 A 204.15.32.8
simcoe.the-wire.com. 4 A 208.89.50.2
nic.the-wire.com. 4 AAAA 2605:b000:0:0:0:0:1:1
simcoe.the-wire.com. 4 AAAA 2605:b000:0:0:0:0:1:2
. 0 OPT ; payload 1232, xrcode 0, version 0, flags 0