Home improvement diva Debbie Travis has a new home on CBC for an as-yet-unnamed primetime series about Canada’s unsung heroes.

The show ‘is about what this country’s made of, and that’s community,’ the British-born Travis tells Playback Daily. ‘It’s not about victims; it’s about heroes. We need to really care at the ground roots.’

The 8 x 60 reality series will spotlight eight unsung heroes — from coast to coast — and launch this fall in the burgeoning Sunday night primetime slot after Heartland and Battle of the Blades, according to Kirstine Stewart, CBC TV general manager, who began building the Sunday night foundation when she joined the pubcaster in 2006.

‘I think Sunday night is another opportunity for the CBC to celebrate Canadians,’ says Stewart, adding that she believes the time is ripe after the multi-gold Vancouver Olympics to ‘celebrate our heroes and successes as much as we can.’

Filming begins in a month, so the pressure is on now to find the right heroes, which can be submitted online.

Travis, in her typical hands-on way, will be ‘checking every nomination personally.’

She isn’t necessarily looking for officials such as a fireman, but for a rep in any community — which she loosely defines as an ‘ethnic community, a hockey or cottage country hero’ — or anyone who selflessly ‘gives back’ and has ‘positively affected others’ lives.’

Moving to CBC — from Global where her From the Ground Up series was a hit — also reopens an old door for Travis.

‘I basically came to Canada because of the CBC,’ she says with a laugh. ‘I gate-crashed the CBC party at MIP in Cannes 25 years ago,’ married a Canadian and moved to Montreal. She also has a history with CBC’s Kirstine Stewart, who was a sales rep on Debbie Travis’ Painted House show in 1995 for WTN.

‘Our paths cross continually and I’m here because of the bloody CBC and that damn party,’ she laughs.

The show is produced by her Montreal shop Whalley-Abbey Media, a member of the Debbie Travis Group, in association with CBC and GroupM Entertainment (Battle of the Blades).