With a commitment to return 41% of its previous year’s revenues to Canadian production, The Comedy Network boasts more than $25 million in original production and 300 hours of homegrown programming in the 2000/01 season.

With 17 new comedies premiering this season, the network’s fourth in operation, all but five are original Comedy productions.

The lineup of new programs premiering this season includes Canada’s first animated sketch comedy series and the network’s first coproduction, Aaargh, It’s the Mr. Hell Show, produced by Vancouver’s Sextant Entertainment and London, Eng.-based Peafur Productions.

Also premiering is The Itch, Salter Street Films’ ‘biting parody’ of the entertainment industry, and Creative Atlantic’s Liography, a hilarious spoof of Biography, starring Leslie Nielsen.

Gemini Award-winning talk show Open Mike with Mike Bullard returns for its fourth season and Ottawa’s Greg Lawrence returns for a third season with his adult animated series Kevin Spencer and the comedy noir detective series Butch Patterson: Private Dick, both produced by Ocnus Productions of Ottawa.

Nelvana’s animated adult comedy series Committed also joins the network.

Just under 80% of Comedy’s primetime schedule in the 2000/01 season features Canadian productions and 58% of its overall schedule is Canadian. *

-www.thecomedynetwork.com