Da Vinci’s Inquest
Broadcaster: CBC
Production companies: Haddock Entertainment, Barna-Alper Productions
Producers: Chris Haddock, Laszlo Barna, Laura Lightbown, Arvi Liimatainen
Overall nominations: 4
Cast: Nicholas Campbell, Ian Tracey, Donnelly Rhodes, Venus Terzo
Storyline: Series creator Chris Haddock once quipped that if they ever ran out of ideas for the show, they’d have Da Vinci campaign for mayor, a post he now assumes in a new series. While the focus of the seventh season stayed more or less in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and revolved around a run at the chief of police gig, last year’s farewell season indeed shifted genre from police procedural to political thriller in anticipation of the series spin-off Da Vinci’s City Hall, which premiered Oct. 25.

Da Vinci #1 in Boston? If there was ever a Canadian-made show with a shot at U.S. syndication glory, it’s Da Vinci and its bank of 91 episodes. Launching straight into season three with 97% saturation on CBS affiliates and debuting the week of Sept. 12, Da Vinci is knocking them dead.
Even when placed in off-peak timeslots, the Canadian export is the fastest-growing syndicated show in the U.S., with a 43% viewership increase since its debut, averaging 2.3 million viewers, which would have placed it in last year’s syndicated top 10. The numbers look so good that Vancouver-based distrib Thunderbird Films believes it just might open the syndication window for other solid Canuck fare, such as that other Vancouver crime series, Cold Squad.

Degrassi: The Next Generation
Broadcaster: CTV
Production company: Epitome Pictures
Producers: Linda Schuyler, Aaron Martin, Stephen Stohn
Overall nominations: 1
Cast: Stacey Farber, Miriam McDonald, Aubrey Graham, Cassie Steele, Ryan Cooley
Storyline: Manny decides she’s going to take a real shot at acting, but then has to make some serious choices when she heads to a plastic surgeon after her agent suggests she ‘make some changes.’ Meanwhile, Ellie rocks the drum-kit in Craig’s band and the sparks fly.
After 25 years, the kids of Degrassi are still keepin’ it real in this fall’s season five. Original mallrats and Degrassi superfans Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith) even drop in for a guest appearance.

Earlier this year, Degrassi: The Next Generation was honored in Beverly Hills at the Television Critics Awards with outstanding achievement in children’s programming (it runs on U.S. youth specialty channel Noggin’), but Epitome producer Stephen Stohn figured it was time to grow up at the Geminis, where the show had previously been submitted in youth categories.
‘BBM and Nielsen figures show that Degrassi has for some time been the most popular Canadian drama series – not just in the youth demographics, but also in the adult demographics such as 2+, 18-49, 25-54, etc.,’ he notes. ‘So it really was important to stand up and be judged alongside the other primetime drama series.’

Godiva’s
Broadcaster: Bravo!
Production companies: Keatley Entertainment, Bread and Butter Productions
Producers: Julia Keatley, Gigi Boyd, Michael MacLennan
Overall nominations: 2
Cast: Stephen Lobo, Erin Karpluk, Carmen Moore, Sonja Bennett
Plot: You won’t see Sammy tending bar or Cliff Claven sitting at his usual stool at Godiva’s, but there’s a dash of Shelley Long in flaky pastry chef Daisy (Bennett) and much grist for the mill within the mélange of characters in season one. This West Coast offering is a decidedly saucier, sexier glimpse behind the kitchen door in a restaurant, headlined by manager Kate (Karpluk), who comes to Vancouver by way of a high-end Toronto bistro, and Ramir (Lobo), the oil to her vinegar as head chef.

Producer Julia Keatley wasted little time mourning Cold Squad, pouring Godiva’s out of the saucepan and into the fire in a hurry, but this year’s Geminis mixes the old with the new. CS is in fact nominated in both directing and acting categories and will likely enjoy a second life in U.S. syndication through Thunderbird Films. Godiva’s is the brainchild of both Keatley and Michael MacLennan, co-executive producer and writer on Queer as Folk.

ReGenesis
Broadcasters: The Movie Network, Movie Central
Production company: Shaftesbury Films
Producers: Christina Jennings, Tom Chehak, Scott Garvie, Laura Harbin, Shane Kinnear, Virginia Rankin
Overall nominations: 8
Cast: Peter Outerbridge, Maxim Roy, Ellen Page, Conrad Pla
Storyline: Biologically speaking, the 21st century is a scary place to live – which is why we’ve got the North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission (NorBAC) to question the choices science makes in the name of progress and big business. Headed by savvy molecular biologist David Sandström (Outerbridge) and executive director Caroline Morrison (Roy), NorBAC tracks out-of-control biotechnology all the way down to its designer genes.

ReGenesis drew a respectable national audience of 444,000 to its season one premiere of Global Television’s second-window airing on Aug. 29 in the 10 p.m. Monday slot, but the numbers might spike if the unfolding avian flu story takes flight closer to home. In a case of life imitating TV, last year’s episodes deal with infected chickens as well as the discovery of a frozen body that carries a strain of the 1918 pandemic virus – which is supposed to have mutated similarly to today’s H5N1 bird flu.
Before the show bowed, executive producer Christina Jennings said she hoped it would stir the audience’s mind, and fuel the debate over our everyday relationship with things we take for granted, such as food, water and vaccinations.

The Eleventh Hour
Broadcaster: CTV
Production company: Norstar Filmed Entertainment
Producers: Ilana Frank, Semi Chellas, Daphne Park, Ray Sager, Peter Simpson, David Wellington
Overall nominations: 15
Cast: Waneta Storms, Tanya Reid, Jeff Seymour, Ben Bass, Sonja Smits
Storyline: Life with the TV journos behind the scenes at a hard newsmag, as they use whatever means possible to get the story. Some highlights of the final season include newbie scribbler Shelley (Bass) tracking the killer of a rent boy, Kennedy (Reid) and Isobel (Storms) jetting to Halifax into a den of meth addicts, and conflict training for reporters held at an army base.

Fictional TV network UT may have been deep-sixed after three seasons, but the crew at the newsmagazine might have the last laugh after tying for the most noms at this year’s awards with real-life newsmag the fifth estate.
‘In fact, it’s just a deep sense of satisfaction,’ says writer and producer Semi Chellas. ‘Our third season kicked ass, and our finale, ‘Bumpy Cover’ (where Shawn Doyle makes a return appearance as ex-producer Dennis, in town on a book tour), felt like the pinnacle of our achievement with the season. That episode received nominations for writing, directing and acting – and that feels like a triumph.’

PLAYBACK PREDICTS THE WINNER:
DaVinci’s Inquest: DD, MHS, MR
The Eleventh Hour: SD
ReGenesis: MH
This Is Wonderland: MD