Sitcoms and dramas are set for an upswing in the 2005/06 season, following the springtime wave of broadcaster orders to the Canadian Television Fund that, pending approval, will bring back ratings winners such as Dominic Da Vinci and Brent LeRoy, while also making room for new titles from the likes of Howard Busgang and Teresa Pavlinek.

The three national nets have ordered a total of 221 hours worth of series and MOWs, including four new hour-long dramas and roughly a half-dozen sitcoms, the greatest share of which belong to CBC. The Ceeb has picked up the medical drama Jozi-H – a copro with South Africa – and the newly politicized Da Vinci’s City Hall, along with a third run of This Is Wonderland and roughly a half-dozen new comedies, including six-ep runs of Colin Mochrie’s Getting Along Famously and Mary Walsh’s Hatching, Matching and Dispatching.

Busgang and partner Bruce Hills are also up for another season of the mocku-hockumentary The Tournament and the new late-nighter Jeremy Hotz: My Life and a Movie.

‘With this slate, CBC once again demonstrates the vital importance of our relationships with independent producers to create and broadcast homegrown dramatic programming of the highest quality,’ says arts and entertainment exec director Deborah Bernstein.

Global, meanwhile, has ordered 13 hours of the recently test-aired teen drama Falcon Beach and 22 half-hours of The Jane Show, the new deadpan sitcom starring and cowritten by Pavlinek, from Shaftesbury Films. The net also recently bought the second-window rights to Shaftesbury’s science-minded drama ReGenesis, which debuted this season on The Movie Network and Movie Central.

CTV is adding the soapy one-hour Whistler, about life in the B.C. resort town, by Boardwatch Productions and Blueprint Entertainment, and the 13 x 30 sitcoms Alice, I Think from Slanted Wheel Entertainment and Omni Productions and Jeff@Work, starring Eleventh Hour alum Jeff Seymour. (Jeff will be funded in-house, however, not by CTF). CTV has also renewed Corner Gas for a third season, Instant Star for a second and Degrassi: The Next Generation for a fifth.

The new slate ‘mixes established hits with rising stars,’ according to CTV programming boss Susanne Boyce, but does not include The Eleventh Hour, which has been cancelled after three seasons of critical acclaim and lacklustre ratings.

‘I have to say I’m not totally surprised,’ says cocreator Semi Chellas, citing the one-hour’s ‘disappointing’ numbers. ‘It just didn’t find its audience. It’s a shame. We had a devoted core audience but it just never got better.’

The show has joined, she adds with a laugh, the ranks of short-lived but inspired series such as My So-Called Life and Sports Night. Eleventh Hour has scored several honors, including the Geminis for best dramatic series and best leading actor, for Seymour, in 2003.

Cocreator Ilana Frank says the show had ‘a good and fair’ run. ‘It was a happy experience. It ran its course. I don’t blame anyone,’ she says.

Eleventh Hour debuted in 2002 on Tuesday nights, moving to Sundays after a thorough retooling, and to Saturdays, in the unpredictable 10 p.m. slot, in which it has drawn an average audience of 360,000 opposite CBC’s Movie Night in Canada.

‘Every day has its negatives and positives,’ says Frank. ‘I think if we were on at 9 p.m. in the middle of the week we might have been okay. But it’s hard to say.’ The final episode, featuring guest stars Nick Campbell and former lead Shawn Doyle, will air March 26.

Also missing are CTV’s Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye and Global’s Zoe Busiek: Wild Card, although neither drama drew CTF cash, having been cofinanced with U.S. channels.

Wild Card was cancelled by Lifetime, and PAX TV has stopped doing original programming, putting Sue Thomas on ice. Its producers at Pebblehut Too hope to revive the show by reselling it to another U.S. caster. The series has performed well on CTV, following W-Five on Saturdays.

Chellas and Frank have a new show in the works, and, with a nod from CTF, will debut The Odds on TMN/MC by spring 2006. It’s a comical romance about a compulsive gambler who crosses paths with a math genius.

ReGenesis ReTurns

TMN/MC is also bringing back ReGenesis for a second go-round, another eight eps of the as-yet-unseen G-Spot, and a third and final bow of Slings and Arrows. The pay channels are also branching into documentaries with the 13-part Stuntdawgs from Omni Productions.

But the big title for both channels this fall is Terminal City from Angus Fraser (Kissed) and Crescent Entertainment. The 10-parter is about a wife and mother of three who finds accidental stardom on a reality TV show while dying from breast cancer.

‘It is weighty material but it’s treated in a way you’ve never seen topics like this treated,’ says Michelle Marion, director of Canadian independent production at parent Astral Media. ‘There’s a rawness to it, an intelligence to it, and a lot of humor. It’s handled with a really light, deft touch.’

Taking a cue from HBO, both pay channels have lately been turning out more prestige dramas and selling the secondary rights to channels further down the dial. Global is re-airing ReGenesis, Showcase has Slings and The Odds, and CHUM has the second window on Terminal City.

The model allows more financial and creative freedom, says Marion, ‘To make something smart that’s creatively out there, that doesn’t need to deal with a lot of the things conventional TV needs to,’ she says.

‘We don’t have ads… so we don’t have to worry about what advertisers think. We can take risks.’

The trickle-down process also makes for more reliable funding, in that each application to CTF is bolstered by first- and second-window viewership. TMN/MC believes it can reasonably expect all four applications to be approved.

‘We’re only going to do a show, or submit a show to CTF that we really want to do,’ Marion comments. ‘It is strictly driven by creative.’

Showcase also has a reputation for airing adult-esque programming, but may be backing off just a little. ‘We’re looking for programming that plays pre-[9 p.m.] or can be versioned easily to play pre-[9 p.m.],’ says John Gill, SVP of dramatic programming at parent Alliance Atlantis. ‘Without abandoning the programming that would play typically on a Friday night and do very well for us.’

Showcase has applied for funding for two new sitcoms – the office-set Billable Hours from Temple Street and Rent-a-Goalie by Chris Bolton, both 10 x 30 – and for new runs of Trailer Park Boys, Naked Josh and Show Me Yours. Paradise Falls is not on the list.

Gill adds that Showcase may buy fewer second-window rights in the future. ‘One of the things that down the road we’ll be looking to is can we push into that hour-long drama – rather than being a second window, actually be the originating broadcaster. It’s a big jump. It’s not just doubling the time on the screen… it’s a wholly different activity and one that we’re edging toward.’

CHUM, meanwhile, has put in for five shows, including the 22 x 60 Blood Ties from Kaleidoscope Entertainment, based on a series of horror novels by Tanya Huff. CHUM is also looking to make 22 half-hours of the sci-fi Ice Corp and has applied for another 13 hours of The Collector. Godiva’s, set to debut on Bravo! on March 16, is up for another seven.

How many dramas?

If TV execs have their way at CTF, there will be 11 Canadian-made first-run one-hour dramas on the air in ’05/06, way up from roughly four at last count, and close to the oft-cited landmark of 12 back in 1999.

* Whistler – Taking over for The Eleventh Hour. CTV replaces newshounds with ski bunnies.

* Robson Arms – Season one of the CTV anthology series has yet to air.

* Falcon Beach – Global’s answer to The O.C. The pilot ran last month after an extended stay in development hell.

* This Is Wonderland – Up for a third season on CBC.

* Jozi-H – You think our emergency rooms are bad? Check out South Africa’s on CBC.

* Da Vinci’s City Hall – Also for CBC. Apparently municipal politics are every bit as exciting as murder investigations. No, really.

* Godiva’s – Season one debuts on Bravo! March 16.

* Terminal City – A dying woman makes it big on reality TV on TMN/MC.

* ReGenesis – Made for TMN/MC and picked up by Global.

* The Collector – CHUM goes to hell for a third season.

* Blood Ties – A little bit Beauty and the Beast, a little bit Forever Knight. A private eye teams up with a 400-year-old vampire/romance writer for CHUM.

With files from Peter Vamos