Vancouver: Actor Paul Gross will return to Canadian primetime this fall in a new comedy-drama series tentatively called Steelstring, which has been ordered by ctv. Sources confirm that the Due South star will play a burned-out rock star who becomes a private investigator.

Gross will also act as coproducer. His company Whizbang Productions of Toronto – a partnership with Bob Carney and Frank Siracusa – will handle production.

ctv will also air a new series, tentatively about young lawyers jockeying for power at a law firm. (At one time, the series was called Trial by Fire, which is not to be confused with a recent cbc movie of the same name.) Alliance Atlantis is a leading contender to produce the series, although Lions Gate Television had been negotiating to produce it.

The two new ctv shows will replace The City and Power Play, which have been canceled due to poor ratings. And in the case of The City, distributor Pearson International is said to have pulled out of the show.

ctv’s Vancouver-based police drama Cold Squad, enjoying the best ratings in its three-year history, has been renewed for a fourth season. It will do 20 episodes, seven more than last year. And sources also say ctv will produce about six television movies.

Among the series not making the final cut at ctv was the undercover cop drama Villains, which would have been Vancouver producer Chris Haddock’s second primetime series on the air. Meanwhile, the fate of Forefront Entertainment’s children’s series Magician’s House, which won raves and large audiences for coproducer bbc, was still being negotiated as Playback went to press.

In fact, with the eip/lfp drama deadline fast approaching Feb. 15, nearly every Canadian broadcast programming executive and drama producer was in final discussions about prospective shows for the fall 2000 schedule – which will feature at least eight hours of Canadian drama in primetime. And because contracts are not signed, sealed and delivered, the players are reluctant to offer details.

For example, the cbc – which no longer gets its own funding envelope from the Canadian Television Fund – is mum about its pickup details. Still, it is widely believed that the Barna-Alper/Haddock-produced coroner series Da Vinci’s Inquest will return for a third season.

Other series with apparent positive momentum for renewal are teen soap Edgemont Road and drama These Arms of Mine, both produced out of Vancouver. However, the two shows have yet to debut on the cbc. Likewise, period western drama Nothing Too Good For a Cowboy is on tenterhooks regarding its third season.

Sullivan Entertainment’s sitcom pr, which is currently in production, is confirmed to air on the cbc in fall 2000.

And cbc has confirmed that Riverdale will not be renewed this season. ‘In order for a soap to succeed, it must develop a regular viewership, which means three or four new episodes a week. cbc can’t afford that now,’ says cbc spokesperson Ruth Ellen Soles.

In addition, Pit Pony is not in pickup mode since the pubcaster still has a full season of new episodes.

Global has a large Canadian drama hole to file in its primetime schedule. Traders is not likely to come back for another season, and speculation puts the focus on Justice, a series that got lost in the funding tango last year.

Lions Gate Television producer Kevin Beggs in l.a. says Global has ordered a television movie based the book Deja Dead. There was no word about a renewal for Bob & Margaret.

WIC Television continues to produce series despite the uncertainty about its future after the Shaw Communications, CanWest Global and Corus Entertainment ownership issues are resolved. President Dale Andrews says Lions Gate series Higher Ground is scheduled to air on wic stations in the fall and Stargate is about to begin its fourth season of 22 episodes. He says Emily of New Moon and Amazon are still ‘under consideration.’

The Comedy Network is expected to pick up a longer season of new series Skullduggery and a second season of sketch series Slightly Bent. Cullen Robertson Productions in Vancouver has already disclosed its order for 13 episodes of Dragnuts, a rehashed Dragnet series.