The results are in and $99.2 million has gone out. The Canadian Television Fund on May 16 made its decisions for the coming season and has put cash into 36 new and returning English-language dramas, handing out 66% of the total dollars requested by casters earlier this year.

The percentage is down slightly from last year’s 75% but still represents good news for many broadcasters. CTV has had five out of its six shows approved, and can now move forward on Alice, I Think and a new run of Corner Gas, among others.

Three of the four proposed shows got the nod at The Movie Network/Movie Central while Showcase scored on seven out of 11, including Moose TV and season six of Trailer Park Boys. CBC had put in for 27 shows, 18 of which came away with cheques. Three of CHUM’s five shows scored at CTF while Global got two out of three.

The results are good news and bad news for CTV. The net got funding for several half-hour series and for its MOWs Doomstown and Last Exit, but nothing for its new drama Whistler, leaving Canada’s largest network without a Canadian-made one-hour drama for 2005/06. Whistler was meant to replace The Eleventh Hour, which was cancelled earlier this year.

Season two of Instant Star is also not on the list because it is not classed as a traditional drama, but will move forward with monies from CTV’s Broadcaster Performance envelope, according to producer Stephen Stohn. Stohn’s Epitome Pictures also produces Degrassi: The Next Generation, which did receive CTF funding and is already in production on its fifth season.

Also conspicuous by their absence are Showcase’s racy Show Me Yours and The Munro Stories from Shaftesbury Films and Original Pictures. The Odds, the proposed gambling series at TMN/MC, also lost out. Showcase also failed to get funds for half-hour series Rent-A-Goalie and Billable Hours.

And yet, John Gill, SVP of dramatic programming at Showcase parent Alliance Atlantis, is upbeat. ‘We’re pretty happy,’ he says. ‘We weren’t privy to how the decisions were made. We’re talking to the producers of the [shows not funded] to see what the next steps are. But anytime you submit 11 series and you get seven of them [funded], I think you’ve got to be, from a broadcasting perspective, pretty pleased with that result… It’s a good day for Showcase.’

The proposed six-episode Munro series, meant to complement the lauded Shields and Atwood Stories, has been rejected for a second consecutive year. Original’s Kim Todd is disappointed by the snub, but notes that the choice is in line with the policy changes the CTF made to include audience reach.

‘What they are measuring is how much CTF-supported Canadian material broadcasters show and how large an audience that broadcaster reaches,’ says Todd. ‘W doesn’t show a lot of Canadian stuff, but we would argue that it’s trying. If you don’t cultivate these smaller broadcasters and encourage them to show Canadian material, how are we going to change that? The policy didn’t change between last year and this year, so I can only assume the CTF is happy with the system.’

With about $150 million in requested dollars and less than $100 million to spend, Telefilm head of English television operations, John Galway, says tough decisions have to be made year to year. But he feels the decisions are fair.

‘We tried to choose projects that had a balance of audience successes as well as different formats, different regions, cultural diversity and different broadcasters,’ says Galway. Telefilm administers the English drama funding for CTF.

At CBC, executive director of network programming Slawko Klymkiw is ‘very pleased’ with the CTF results and can now push ahead with the new series Da Vinci’s City Hall and season three of This is Wonderland.

In addition, CBC received funding for Chris Haddock’s MOW/pilot Intelligence, the Canada/South Africa coproduction Jozi H, an eight-part mini about the October Crisis, and the two-parters Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis and Dragon Boys. The Ceeb will also make the Paul Pope MOW Hey Day, six hours of Hotel Metropolitan and six half-hours of Hatching, Matching and Dispatching.

The CBC also received funding for its fifteenth and final season of The Red Green Show, a thirteenth run of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, 10 eps of The Tournament, seven additional What It’s Like Being Alones and two pilots – Rabbittown and This Space for Rent.

The Comedy Network fared well, receiving CTF cash for the continuation of Odd Job Jack and a fourth season of Puppets Who Kill. Showcase received funds for Trailer Park Boys season six, eight episodes of the new series Moose TV, 10 more eps of Naked Josh and a third season of Moccasin Flats, shot in partnership with APTN.

CHUM received funding for its second season of Godiva’s and season three of The Collector, while TMN/MC was funded for a third round of Slings and Arrows, eight more G-Spots (both produced with Showcase) and 13 new episodes of ReGenesis. TMN/MC lost its bid however, to win backing for its new gambling series The Odds.

With files from Peter Vamos and Sean Davidson.