Bit by bit, the specialty channels have pulled back the curtain on their plans for the 2006/07 season. Highlights announced so far include:

Bravo!

The CHUM-owned arts channel will broadcast a number of one-off documentaries on such subjects as author Michel Tremblay, singer Buffy Sainte-Marie and The Last Mogul, an in-depth look at Hollywood king Lew Wasserman by director Barry Avrich (Madness of King Richard, A Criminal Mind).

Sometime in December it will also run Ballet Girls, a three-part doc following young dancers striving to land the lead in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. It is produced by Winnipeg-based Merit Motion Pictures and Vonnie Von Helmolt Film in association with Bravo! and is directed by Elise Swerhone.

Returning in September is the Gemini Award-winning Live at the Rehearsal Hall, featuring performers including Toronto crooner Matt Dusk.

The Comedy Network

In the half-hour Punched Up by Indivisual Productions, four comedians follow average people around, making jokes and jabs about their life at home, work and play, in what is being billed as a satire of makeover programs and reality TV. Meanwhile, the 13 x 30 Keys to VIP by Toronto-based Buck Productions watches as two men compete to seduce women in a bar.

Also, the stop-motion, clay-animated Celebrity Deathmatch features a series of fantasy boxing bouts between celebs including Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, and between basketball stars Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. The eight-part series is a copro by Cuppa Coffee Animation and MTV in the U.S.

‘Punched Up and Keys to VIP play on the reality TV genre – they’re not true reality TV series, but we like to play with that,’ says Comedy director of programming Brent Hayes. ‘We are pursuing funny shows that speak to our [20- to 30-year-old] audience, that really have a sense of personality… a bit in your face, a bit aggressive.’

All three are in early production, and have not yet been scheduled. Comedy’s Puppets Who Kill is on indefinite hiatus.

The Discovery Network

Discovery will air three new series: Star Racer, in conjunction with Insight Productions, Patent Bending, from Cat Productions, and Daily Planet in China, by the channel’s in-house shop Exploration Production.

Star Racer, produced by the team behind Canadian Idol, follows Go-Kart drivers trying to make it into big-time auto racing, looking not only at the competition, but the science behind speed.

In Patent Bending, two hosts scour the patent books from the last 100 years to find the greatest, strangest or oddest ideas that never got off the page. Daily Planet in China, is a six-part HD special that explores the sprawling country, including its space program, the infrastructure for next year’s summer Olympics, and its archeological treasures.

Space

A coproduction between Toronto-based SpaceWorks Entertainment and the U.K., the 22 x 60 sci-fi series Ice Planet stars Michael Ironside (ER, Starship Troopers) and is produced by Daniel D’Or, Philip Jackson and Paul Rapovski of SpaceWorks. The series is expected to be produced with Highgate Films, though both companies are said to be renegotiating the deal.

The cable channel has no other major new domestic shows.

‘We’ve done so well this year on Space that everything seems to be continuing [without a lot of new shows],’ says director of programming and acquisitions Ismé Bennie.

CMT Canada

The first six half-hours of Plucked, by Toronto-based Henry Less Productions, focus on one up-and-coming Canadian musician or band, who are given the tools needed to make it big. In the final episode, viewers will vote on which of their videos should be added to the CMT rotation.

The show ‘explores the idea of whether packaging matters for musicians, and is this concept flawed?’ says CMT head of programming Ted Ellis. ‘The first six episodes are standalone, and in the future, they will probably play alone without the seventh episode.’ The HD series will launch in October.

Outdoor Life Network

Three new unscripted series reflect OLN’s move toward adventure programming. Barenaked Ladies singer-guitarist Ed Robertson goes to new heights in the 13-part series Ed’s Up – flying his plane to parts unknown across Canada to meet such outdoorsy and tough types as a search-and-rescue team in the Rockies, tree planters, miners and the Hamilton Tiger Cats.

The show is produced by Toronto-based Peace Point Productions, directed by Andrew MacDonald, and is tentatively scheduled to take off in November.

Another 13-parter is Crash Addicts, about car fanatics who assemble vehicles and then smash them up in demolition derbies, scheduled for October. The 13 x 30 docusoap The Rig – by Edmonton-based Anaid Productions and exec producer Margaret Mardirossian, also set for October – follows six members of an Alberta oil-rig crew.

The channel ‘is going in the direction of rugged, adventurous entertainment. Our plan last year was to slowly increase programs that capture that adventurous feel… and the shows this upcoming fall do really capture that flavor,’ says OLN director Anna Stambolic.

W Network

Twenty-six more episodes of The Smart Woman Survival Guide have been ordered before the first 13 have even aired, as W executives are convinced the new scripted show by Magee TV will shine brighter than kitchen sink chrome polished with flour.

The half-hour ‘infocom’ combines Martha Stewart-style tips like that – like that flour on chrome thing – with elements of lifestyle programming and sitcoms, and kicks off in September.

‘We think this is an innovative show that is going to capture Canadian audiences and show that we can do comedy and we can do lifestyle,’ says Maria Armstrong, head of original programming for W. ‘This show will bring in our staple audience [women aged 18 to 50], but a new audience as well.’

The Smart Woman Survival Guide is created by Allan Magee, co-creator of Designer Guys, So Chic and Love by Design, and creative consultant to Trailer Park Boys, Naked Josh and Slings & Arrows.

YTV

YTV continues its focus on animation, with at least three new half-hour animated series – Erky Perky, Ruby Gloom and Grossology.

‘We have been moving to animation more on YTV over the last few years and less on live action than previously. Kids love animation, and it has a better repeat rate.’ says Bonnie Siegel, head of original programming for kids television at parent company Corus Entertainment.

YTV’s one new homegrown live-action series is Game Gurus, a game show produced by Pyman Studios in which families compete against each other in board games for a chance to win a vacation.