The Listener is the latest Canadian drama to head to ION Television stateside.

Shine International has sold the Shaftesbury Films drama about a telepathic paramedic to the U.S. cable channel, which already airs Canuck series like The Border, Flashpoint and Durham County.

The Listener going to ION follows the series airing for a short time on NBC in 2009 before it was yanked.

At the same time, Shaftesbury Films managed to structure the financing for The Listener, which also airs on CTV and the Fox International Channels internationally, so that the drama could survive the loss of a modest license fee from NBC and remain in production after its U.S. cancellation.

Production on the third season of the homegrown drama (13 x 60-min) is now underway, just as ION Television picks up the first two seasons, and has an option to acquire future cycles.

The Listener has averaged just over one million viewers on CTV, which also airs the drama on Bravo!.

The drama stars Craig Olejnik in the lead role, and Lauren Lee Smith, Ennis Esmer, Rainbow Sun Francks and Peter Stebbings.

The Listener is executive produced by Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie for Shaftesbury, and Karen Troubetzkoy and Peter Mohan, who is also the third season showrunner.