The Canadian Television Fund has awarded $99.2 million to further domestic TV production, putting cash into 36 new and returning English-language dramas, handing out 66% of the total dollars requested by broadcasters earlier this year, down slightly from last year’s 75%.

CTV has had five out of its six shows approved, and can now move forward on Alice, I Think and a new run of Corner Gas, among others but received nothing for its new drama Whistler, leaving Canada’s largest network without a Canadian-made one-hour drama for 2005/06. Whistler was meant to replace The Eleventh Hour, which was cancelled earlier this year. Season two of Instant Star is also not on the list because it is not classed as a traditional drama, but will move forward with monies from CTV’s Broadcaster Performance envelope, according to producer Stephen Stohn. Stohn’s Epitome Pictures also produces Degrassi: The Next Generation, which did receive CTF funding and is already in production on its fifth season. The net also got funding for MOWs Doomstown and Last Exit.

The two-hour season finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation directed by Quentin Tarantino went down in the record books. According to Nielsen Media Research, the show’s last half hour peaked at about five million (4.93 M) sets of eyeballs, making it one of the most-watched television events on Canuck TV this year, following February’s Oscars. The CSI finale’s audience count – at 1.224 million in Toronto/Hamilton – fired The Apprentice‘s season finale which earned 542,000 on Global. CSI is the leading drama on Canadian TV averaging 3.404 million viewers per episode.

The CRTC announced on Friday that it has approved Rogers Broadcasting’s application to acquire NOWTV (CHNU-TV Fraser Valley) and to launch CIIT-TV in Winnipeg. The stations focus on religious and spiritual programming.

The CRTC has also approved the expansion of NOWTV’s broadcast into Victoria through the installation of a separate transmitter.
www.rogers.com

Beginning on Monday, May 30, PRIME will be adding Seinfeld, Danger Bay, The Restaurant, Matrix and My Fabulous Gay Wedding to its primetime and weekend roster.

Monday, May 30
Half-hour drama Danger Bay premiers and airs Monday to Thursday at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday, June 1
Popular sitcom about nothing Seinfeld premiers with multiple airtimes. There will also be a six-hour Seinfeld marathon special on Saturday, June 11.

Friday, June 3
The action installation series Matrix starring Nick Mancuso and Carrie-Ann Moss premiers on Friday, June 3 and airs weekly at 11 p.m.

Saturday June 4
The Restaurant, a one-hour reality doc focusing on workplace drama, airs on Saturdays at 8 p.m.

Sunday, June 12
The season premiere of My Fabulous Gay Wedding starring Scott Thompson airs at 10 p.m. and screens weekly.

Look out Lizzie McGuire, here comes Sadie. An original live-action comedy series for tweens (eight-14) is set to make its Canadian TV premiere on Family on Saturday, June 25 at 6 p.m. Naturally, Sadie stars wannabe naturalist Sadie Hawthorne (Charlotte Arnold), a nature-obsessed 14-year-old who observes and documents the behaviour of human specimens at her high school. In her quest to understand the world, Sadie always inadvertently ends up insulting her classmates or dragging her friends into social experiments gone wrong.

Naturally, Sadie, which will be comprised of 26 half-hour episodes, is produced by Toronto’s DECODE Entertainment in association with Family Channel. Sponsorship opportunities are currently available and ‘it’s a particularly good opportunity, considering that the show is produced locally, and thus provides good access to talent for events,’ says Marcia Andreychuk, a spokesperson from Family Channel.

Women’s specialty W Network is preeming a new Canadian series, Ghostly Encounters. The show explores real people’s stories of meetings with the supernatural, shown through re-enactments. It will air Fridays at 8:30 p.m, beginning July 15.

W will also be running a doc with a Dove tie-in. The Beauty Quest (working title) follows fashion photographer Arline Malakian as she leaves her glossy world behind on a quest to find the picture of true beauty. Meeting a variety of women of different ages, sizes, cultures and walks of life, Malakian’s final picture choice will be featured in the Dove Beyond Compare photo exhibition later this year. The doc airs Saturday, July 30 at 8 p.m. W is targeting women 18-54 for both of these shows.

Nannies to the rescue! Life network unveils Nanny 911, a new, unscripted series aimed at parents everywhere. The show follows a team of expert nannies, dispatched to various homes by über-nanny, Lillian, an au pair with more than 25 years of child care experience to the British upper-crust under her belt. The nannies then identify the causes of turmoil and devise a plan to turn temper tantrums into tears of joy. Nanny 911 is currently a ratings hit on Fox in the U.S. The series premiers on Monday, July 11 at 8 p.m. and airs weekly. Primary target demo is women 25-54.

Beginning Tuesday, July 26, BBC Canada brings half-hour sitcom Father Ted to living rooms across the nation. This series, from the U.K.’s Hat Trick Productions, was originally shot in the mid-’90s and brought big ratings numbers to its original broadcaster, Channel 4. It airs at 10:20 p.m. on BBC Canada.

The Canadians are south this week sussing out the new programming and trying to sort out what they’re going to buy. In the meantime, Media in Canada does a quick round-up of the U.S.’s new shows, almost all of which are bound to be picked up for this country. Coverage includes fall and midseason.

Please open the attached links to view the following charts for Toronto based on the broadcast months of April ’04 to end April ’05 (13 months)

a) Total Commercial GRPS based on monitored Conventional and Specialty stations

b) Total Commercial GRPS based on monitored Specialty Stations