The makers of Little Mosque on the Prairie and The Border have emerged relatively unscathed by recent cuts to CBC’s primetime schedule, and say that despite the reductions revealed this week, their shows will not suffer in terms of production value and will not lose any staff.

The Border had its third season order reduced by one episode, to 12. Exec producer Peter Raymont says he had a choice between losing an episode or cutting the budget across a full 13. The per-episode budget will stay at $1.5 million per ep, he says.

‘That’s not a big deal… we’d prefer to do 13, [but] we’re optimistic we’re going to get a fourth season order and do 14 or maybe more next year,’ he tells Playback Daily. The Border is produced through his Toronto-based White Pine Pictures.

Mary Darling, exec producer of Little Mosque concurs, adding that the Regina-based production is ‘minimally impacted’ by the cuts. Little Mosque has had its fourth season order reduced from 20 to 18 episodes, and like The Border, will not lose any cast or crew.

‘When you consider the impact on the industry as a whole, we count our blessings,’ says Darling, who produces through her Toronto- and Regina-based shingle WestWind Pictures. Like Raymont, Darling was not surprised by the episode cut and says they ‘saw what was coming.’

Little Mosque is set to begin production on its fourth season in May with a tighter budget than usual, though Darling insists it will not impact the look of the show.

‘We’ll bend over backwards… we know how to produce where our viewers won’t look at that and say ‘Whoa, they really had a cut,” she says.

Raymont says fewer episodes may hurt international sales of The Border because foreign buyers assume they’ll get 13 episodes per season. But again, he notes, ‘it’s not terrible to lose one episode if we can make it up next year.’ The series airs in the U.K., Germany, France and the U.S.

Other CBC shows that will be impacted by cuts revealed on Thursday include Being Erica and This Hour Has 22 Minutes, though no one was available at Temple Street Productions or Halifax Film, respectively, for comment.

Ratings darling The Rick Mercer Report remains untouched, according to a spokesperson for the show. The CBC made no mention of cuts to new arrival Wild Roses, nor to Heartland, Dragons’ Den and The Tudors, though the latter is shared with Showtime.

CBC announced this week that its English services will slash nearly 400 jobs to save $85 million — including 80 positions in its news division and a further 213 positions in sports, entertainment, current affairs and sales — while CBC Radio will lose 121 jobs.

With files from Sean Davidson