The brass at Global Television hope that shifting this year’s Gemini Awards gala to Vancouver from Toronto will provide just the fresh start the national show needs.

The Nov. 4 event, to be broadcast for the second consecutive year on Global, will be the first Geminis to hit the road after 20 years in Toronto – and criticisms from certain circles that there has been too much of a Toronto-centric bias to the proceedings.

‘It’s high time that the awards ceremony went out to the regions, and Vancouver is the perfect place for it,’ says Barbara Williams, SVP of programming and production at CanWest MediaWorks, Global’s parent company.

Williams says Global and the show’s producers are in the midst of nailing down a high-profile host for the evening, but nothing had been confirmed by press time.

‘I’d tell you who it is but I don’t want to jinx it,’ she says, adding that the same goes for proposed celebrity guests and presenters.

While holding the gala in Vancouver is seen as giving back to the West Coast industry, the timing of the show still caters to the eastern Canada viewer. The broadcast, from the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, BC, will kick off with a half-hour red carpet special hosted by the crew at Global’s Entertainment Tonight Canada, beginning at 9 p.m. EST. The awards gala will follow at 9:30 p.m. and run one hour.

Vancouver native Moyra Rodger of Out to See Entertainment, which specializes in variety, doc and kids programs, will produce the gala. She says it is still too early to confirm details of the show, but sees the home turf as a definite plus.

‘There’s a real sense of excitement about having the show in our own backyard,’ Rodger says. ‘The West Coast vibe will permeate throughout the show. We’re referred to as the ‘Left Coast’ and ‘Lotus Land’ for a reason.’

One irony of Global airing the show is that it has traditionally not fared well at the podium. Last year, news anchor Kevin Newman was the only Global employee to go home with hardware. This year, the caster claims 25 nominations (although this includes 10 for ReGenesis, which Global airs in a second window), while the CTV family of stations has 48 noms (despite CTV News not participating), and CHUM has six for original productions and another 11 for its association with indie productions. Pubcaster CBC is far and away the leader with 194.

Like last year, the Gemini Awards will air on Saturday night against the Hockey Night in Canada juggernaut. The 2005 Gems telecast brought in slightly more than 200,000 viewers, which places it at the lower end of ratings the show achieved in recent years on CBC.

This time around it will be Mats Sundin and the Toronto Maple Leafs versus Cara Pifko and the cast of the recently cancelled This Is Wonderland, which leads all programs with a dozen noms.

Back in its heyday of 1993-1996, the Geminis routinely drew more than one million viewers, but by scheduling the show against HNIC, Global is showing that it is not chiefly concerned with restoring the show’s ratings to former glories.

‘We were content with the ratings we had last year,’ Williams says. ‘This isn’t a ratings-driven project for us.’ It’s more about giving back to the Canadian production community, she adds.

Likewise, ratings are not the be all and end all for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television – which puts on the Geminis – according to its president and CEO Maria Topalovich.

‘We look forward to the ratings, but we measure every other aspect of our campaign. Our goal is to build awareness of Canadian television,’ she says.

Topalovich continues that she’s very happy to have Global on board again this year.

‘They’ve brought enthusiasm and have put their weight behind it at every level,’ she says. ‘They are a delight to work with.’

Topalovich says that the City of Vancouver has worked hard for years to bring the awards show out West. The gala is piggybacking on the Canadian Association of Broadcasters conference that takes place Nov. 5-7, also in Vancouver. ‘It seems like a real convergence of Canadian television on the West Coast,’ Topalovich notes.

The broadcast gala will be preceded by three more low-key awards handouts to be held Oct. 16-18 at Toronto’s Liberty Grand entertainment complex and produced by Gemini vet Lynn Harvey. The 16th plays host to the news, documentary and sports gala, while the 17th is the lifestyle, children’s and youth gala, followed on the 18th by the drama, variety and comedy gala. These awards will be broadcast on the Rogers cable network, although no airdates had been confirmed by press time.