On October 19 CTV’s homegrown hit Corner Gas hits the shelves with its DVD and VHS release. Viewers can get all 13 episodes of the comedy’s first season in the two-disc DVD package or the three-tape VHS package from retailers across Canada. Following the show’s theme, Petro-Canada has jumped onboard by including in both packages a free coffee coupon redeemable at their JavaStop locations across the country.

Discovery Networks and Visa USA have renewed their multi-million dollar ad partnership – not only will Visa be the exclusive sponsor of TLC’s What Not to Wear but their new agreement will also include the new series Taking Care of Business (set to air in late 2004) and advertising opps on the Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, BBC America, Discovery Home Channel and Discovery Times Channel.
Along with on-air product integration, Visa will be visible nationwide in Discovery Channel stores as well as sponsoring upcoming What Not to Wear specials — $50,000 Dream Wardrobe, Worst Dressed Couple in America and What Not to Wear: Where are they now.
http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/whatnottowear/whatnottowear.html

CTV has scored the rights to produce a one-hour prime time exclusive with Shania Twain. The special, which is timed for her return next month to Canada and her hometown of Timmins, ON, will chronicle her visit and will be hosted by etalk‘s Ben Mulroney. The CTV special will air later this Fall (exact date TBD).
In addition to the one-hour exclusive, CTV has signed Twain on for a one-day stint as co-host of Canada AM, for a live on-location broadcast from Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square on November 3.

CTV’s Degrassi: The Next Generation and Corner Gas scored big on Tuesday, (October 12) garnering large Canadian audiences and improved ratings nationally. In audience data supplied by BBM, Degrassi: The Next Generation proved its talent for capturing teenage angst with 930,000 viewers nationally, an overall audience surge of 52%, and a 66% spike in the adults 18-49 demographic. While Corner Gas surpassed the one-million viewer mark as 1.4 million tuned in to watch the homegrown series.
Together, the combination of Corner Gas and Degrassi: The Next Generation gave CTV an average audience of more than one million viewers winning the 8-9 p.m. timeslot in Canada. Overall rating showed that Corner Gas and Degrassi more than doubled Making the Cut (CBC, 566,000. 2+); back-to-back episodes of Father of the Pride (Global, 384,000, 2+) and Degrassi nearly doubled the season premiere of DaVinci’s Inquest (CBC, 640,000, 2+) at 9 p.m.

To honour the life of actor Christopher Reeve, Space will pre-empt its previously scheduled programming next Sunday to air a special Superman movie double bill.
Smallville airs at 7 p.m. with Superman airing at 9 p.m. and Superman II at 12 a.m. on Sunday, October 17.

VisionTV has lined up a series of movies to honour Remembrance Day – Paths of Glory – a Stanley Kubrick adaptation of Humphrey Cobb’s novel that follows a French general as he launches an assault on a German stronghold (airing Tuesday, November 9, 8 p.m.) and Hope and Glory a two-hour feature by John Boorman, a semi-autobiographical recollection of one family’s experience during the London blitz (airing Tuesday, November 11, 8 p.m.).
An encore presentation of The War Brides: From Romance to Reality narrated by Pamela Wallin will be airing Tuesday, November 9 at 10 p.m. and repeating on Friday, November 12 at 10 p.m.

To keep the hockey puck sliding, TSN is televising NHL on TSN: Canada Cup Classic games on Tuesday nights at 7:30 p.m. and NHL on TSN: Wednesday Night Classic Hockey every Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m.

Ten celebrity advocates slated to debate in the upcoming CBC TV series The Greatest Canadian will be partnered with one of the Top Ten ‘greats’ (nominated by the public) and get an hour to present their program – which they hope will convince viewers to vote for their nominee.

Bob Geldof recently expanded his entertainment realm via prodco acquisitions, and now his UK-based factual outfit Ten Alps Communications has optioned its first format into the U.S. market. The format, Celebrity Court, will be adapted for the U.S. by FremantleMedia North America (the American Idol folks), where there is bound to be lots of fodder for this inevitable hybrid.

The hour-long drama Kink in My Hair, one of the winning projects from VisionTV’s cultural diversity drama competition, follows a strong-willed single mother who presides over the stylists and patrons at a popular hair salon found in Toronto’s Caribbean neighbourhood. The special airs Tuesday, November 23 at 10 p.m.
St. Jamestown, the first of the winning projects from VisionTV aired in October and the third and final project, Hotel Babylon, is currently in production and is slated for broadcast on Tuesday, January 25 at 10 p.m.

Could an edgy show with lots of sex and swearing, ample nudity and four really hot women help boost homegrown television? Two of the country’s top producers think so and have come together on a gritty, new HBO-style comedy.