CBC Announces Fall Programming
by Staff
(May 27, 2016 – Toronto, ON) Yesterday CBC announced its 2016–17 fall and winter season, featuring a slate of new and returning Canadian drama, comedy, factual, news, documentary, sports, arts and digital content from diverse voices and perspectives.
“No other media company can match the depth and breadth of the CBC when it comes to distinctly Canadian storytelling,” said Heather Conway, executive vice-president, English Services, CBC. “This season, we are building on our commitment to invest in more original, premium content by offering our most ambitious, diverse programming slate ever, focused on authentic voices, unique perspectives and character-driven stories that inspire, challenge, empower and entertain on all our platforms.”
Just one of the highlights from this fall is an all-new one-hour weekday daytime lifestyle series that will launch on October 3. Hosted by a team that includes beloved personalities Steven Sabados and Jessi Cruickshank, the program will bring a fresh approach to daytime, offering playful inspiration and information on food, home, fashion and health. Additional hosts will be announced in the coming weeks.
New primetime series include an 8-episode crime-thriller titled Shoot the Messenger, that’s focused on the complicated relationships between crime reporters and the police. Then there’s 6 one-hour episodes of Pure, a dramatic mini-series about Mennonites who control one of the most efficient drug-trafficking operations in North America. It is a hit played that has found a home in Toronto theatres and elsewhere for years and now playwright Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience comes to television with a full season 13-episode run of the 30-minute comedy. If you’re unfamiliar with the play, it’s a funny, heartfelt story of a Korean-Canadian family running a convenience store in Toronto. Working Moms is a brash comedy from Catherine Reitman that tests the modern ideal that women really can have it all. It will also have an initial run of 13 -30-minute episodes. The acclaimed Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays is back with six more 30-minute episodes. And finally, taking on contemporary issues that are important to Canadians through authentic storytelling, there will are two new factual series on offer this fall. The first is titled This is High School. With unprecedented and unfiltered access to real life at a British Columbia high school this is a 6-part series with each episode running 60-minutes. And True North Calling follows a group of young Canadians as they carve out lives at the edge of the Arctic.
Building on the success of last season’s acclaimed and award-winning programming lineup, returning drama, comedy, factual and arts series include Canada’s Smartest Person (season 3); Coronation Street (season 18); Crash Gallery (season 2); Dragon’s Den (season 11); Exhibitionists (season 2); Ha!ifax Comedy Fest (season 21); Heartland (season 10); Hello Goodbye (season 2); Interrupt This Program (season 2); Just For Laughs: Galas; Mr. D (season 6); Murdoch Mysteries (season 10); Rick Mercer Report (season 14); The Romeo Section (season 2); Schitt’s Creek (season 3); This Hour Has 22 Minutes (season 24); This Life (season 2); The Winnipeg Comedy Festival (season 15); and the World War Two drama X Company (season 3).
CBC plans to bolster its slate of award-winning news, investigative and documentary programming with the launch of a new investigative program hosted by Diana Swain, which will take Canadians behind the scenes for a closer look at the process of investigative journalism. CBC journalist Peter Armstrong will host a re-imagined business show. Returning flagship titles include news and investigative programs The National, Marketplace (season 44) and the fifth estate (season 42), thought-provoking documentary series Firsthand (season 2) and David Suzuki’s The Nature Of Things (season 56).
For sports fans, after coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer, CBC Sports will build on its commitment to promote and elevate high-performance sport and athletes in Canada with expanded coverage leading into the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. In addition to events such as FIS ski and snowboard and IBSF bobsleigh and skeleton, CBC Sports has signed a new three-year agreement for exclusive Canadian coverage of ISU figure skating and speed skating.
