With rivals CTV and Global Television touting returning U.S. series such as Pushing Daisies, Gossip Girl, Heroes and House, the CBC is at long last showing off its own returning hits – homegrown shows including The Border and Little Mosque on the Prairie.

‘It was a long summer — the Olympics were on. So we need to remind people, because the press doesn’t necessarily think of us having returning shows,’ said Kirstine Layfield, executive director of network programming at CBC Television, at a Thursday press launch in Toronto for the pubcaster’s fall offerings.

Rather than roll out new fall TV series as replacements for past duds, Layfield and her programming team reminded the media about the cliffhanger from the second-season finale of Little Mosque, to be solved on Oct. 1 with the new cycle’s premiere: is Rayyan (Sitara Hewitt) about to say yes to an arranged marriage?

The second season of the comedy Sophie will also bow on October 1, after Little Mosque, with Sophie having to weigh whether the father of her baby should matter in her life, now that he’s back in town.

And The Border will return September 29 with series lead Sofia Milos seing her Homeland Security agent job under threat, as Vancouver actress Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica) debuts as a rival U.S. Homeland Security agent for a multi-series arc. There are also new second-season roles for Daisy Beaumont and Nicholas Campbell.

The Border, the White Pine Pictures drama about Canadian customs agents safeguarding Canadian airports and border posts, drew an average 775,000 viewers during its first season.

Layfield said she purposely bows new CBC series in January, before bringing back those shows that find favor with audiences for the subsequent fall season.

She added the pubcaster invested much time and energy into ensuring success for the sophomore seasons that start next week, not least by scheduling the U.S. game shows Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune as primetime lead-ins.

Mid-season, CBC will debut two new series: Being Erica (formerly known as The Session), a 13-part comedy/drama from Temple Street Productions, and The Wild Roses, from Northwood Productions and Seven24 Films of Calgary.

At the end of the 2007-08 TV season, CBC cut jPod and MVP — two series that had debuted in the previous January — as it renewed The Border and Sophie.