CBC’s new daytime drama will either be about a single dad living in Vancouver or it will follow the rivalries of four powerful East Coast families, depending on how the pilots turn out.

North/South, produced by Michael Donovan’s The Halifax Film Company and Toronto’s Inner City Films, and 49th and Main from Vancouver prodcos William B. Davis Productions and Raging Ruby Pictures, will both shoot pilots early this year for the Ceeb. The network has been looking for a new and ethnically diverse half-hour soap and since August has whittled a list of 360 pitches down to a final two, one of which may be turned into a series.

‘We hope one of these test episodes will be the start of something special for CBC Television and for our viewers,’ says Rae Hull, project head and senior director of network programming. Both pilots will be aired, although a date has not been set.

North/South is about four wealthy families and their internecine battles in the Nova Scotia construction industry, while 49th and Main follows an Indian-bred, African-born, British-raised doctor working in Vancouver.

Canada has not had a homemade soap since CBC’s Riverdale ended its three-season run in 2000. Previous attempts include Moment of Truth, Strange Paradise and Paul Bernard, Psychiatrist, all of which ran on CBC in the ’60s and ’70s.

-www.cbc.ca