CBC renews Schitt’s Creek for a fifth season

The pubcaster has made an expanded, 14-episode order for the half-hour comedy, which is set to return in winter 2019.

CBC has greenlit a fifth season of its half-hour comedy Schitt’s Creek.

The pubcaster has bumped up its order from 13 to 14 episodes, with season five set to begin airing in winter 2019. Production is scheduled to start later this month in Ontario.

In the U.S., the show airs on Pop TV, which also confirmed it has picked up the fifth season.

The comedy is in the middle of its season-four run and has drawn an average audience of 742,000 (2+ AMA) on CBC so far this season, according to Numeris data provided by CBC, with 41% of viewers in the 25-54 demographic. As well, CBC said the show has had a total weekly reach of more than 1.4 million during season four. The finale is due to air April 10 on CBC.

Created by and starring Eugene Levy and Dan Levy, the series is about a wealthy family who suddenly find themselves broke and forced to live in Schitt’s Creek, a small town they once bought as a joke. The show, which debuted on CBC in 2015, also stars Catherine O’Hara, Daniel Levy, Annie Murphy, Chris Elliott, Emily Hampshire and Jennifer Robertson.

The series is nominated for 11 Canadian Screen Awards this week, including best comedy writing, best directing in a comedy and seven acting nominations (including best lead actor, best lead actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress). It has previously won a number of CSAs, including Best Comedy Series (2016), Best Writing in a Comedy for Dan Levy (2016), Best Comedy Performance for both Eugene Levy (2016) and Catherine O’Hara (2016, 2017).

Schitt’s Creek is produced by Not A Real Company Productions, in association with CBC and PopTV. Executive producers are Eugene Levy, Dan Levy, Andrew Barnsley, Fred Levy, David West Read and Ben Feigin. The show is distributed internationally by ITV Studios Global Entertainment.