Bell Media has announced its lineup of English and French-language original content for 2024-25 ahead of its upfront presentation on Thursday (June 6).

There are 98 titles (36 new originals added to 62 previously announced shows) totalling 839 hours, which is roughly the same as in 2023 and 2022. New originals include Crave’s first animated series, the adult-content Super Team Canada, and new drama Bad Trips.

Of these, nearly three-quarters of original programming hours are renewed series and returning franchises. The slate is set to expand with an anticipated 300 additional hours to be announced throughout the year.

In addition to its new slate, the media giant also announced its 10 free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels will launch this year on Plex and The Roku Channel.

Crave

The expanded original commissions for Crave include scripted drama Bad Trips (Blink49 Studios, Real Friends Media, The Donaldson Company, Dreamchaser Entertainment), a six-episode limited series set in Toronto in 2015. The inspired by true-event series hails from co-showrunners Sasha Leigh Henry (Bria Mack Gets A Life) and Tania Thompson, and is executive produced by Graeme Manson.

On the slate is the previously-announced first-ever original animated series, Super Team Canada (Atomic Cartoons, Electric Avenue), set to launch early next year. The comedy follows the exploits of six Canadian superheroes voiced by, among others, Will Arnett, Cobie Smulders and Kevin McDonald. Bryan Adams performs the theme song.

Also on the comedy slate are the previously announced Made for TV with Boman Martinez-Reid (Alibi Entertainment), The Office Movers (Counterfeit Pictures) and My Dead Mom (LoCo Motion Pictures), a short-form comedy series from creator Wendy Litner and starring Megan Follows and Lauren Collins.

Four comedy series have also been renewed, including second seasons of Late Bloomer (Pier 21 Films), Sisters (Shaftesbury, Peer Pressure), and The Trades (Trailer Park Boys Inc. and Kontent House), and the fourth season of Shoresy (New Metric Media). Notably, last year’s Crave original, Bria Mack Gets A Life, which took home Best Comedy Series at this year’s Canadian Screen Awards, was not picked up for a second season, Playback Daily has confirmed.

Other scripted titles include the previously announced series Don’t Even (Pier 21, Frantic Films, Sekowan Media), Bon Cop Bad Cop (PaNik Fictions, Jessie Films) and So Long, Marianne (C3 Media, Letters From Leonard, Tanweer Productions).

In the unscripted arena are new series Slaycation (Blue Ant Studios), Mark McKinney Needs a Hobby (Sphere Media) and Drag Brunch Saved My Life (Sphere Media). Renewed shows include season five of Canada’s Drag Race and the second season of Canada’s Drag Race: Canada Vs. the World (both from Blue Ant Studios, Saloon Media, World of Wonder).

On the documentary side is the new docuseries The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens (Fair Play), which examines the NHL team’s 2023-24 season.

The series joins previously announced feature docs and series such as Any Other Way: the Jackie Shane Story (Banger Media), Audiophilia: Adventures in the World of Hi-Fi (Sphinx Productions), Bam Bam: The Sister Nancy Story (Oya Media Group), Beauty Kings (Morro Creative), The Bones (Intuitive Pictures Inc.), Darcy & Jef: No Refunds (Busy Donkey Ltd, Counterfeit Pictures Production), Modern Whore (Clique Pictures, Virgin Twins), Postnatural (90^th Parallel Productions), Russell Peters (Loft Entertainment), Resident Orca (Everyday Films), Singhs in the Ring (Fennessey Films & Score G Productions), Smoke & Gifts: It’s All Going to Break (Fathom Film Group), Wilfred Buck (Door Number 3/NFB) and The Art of Dance (Hip Hop Films).

The streamer’s new acquisitions include MGM+ series Emperor of Ocean Park, TBS’s Conan Without Borders, Starz’s Insomnia, Peacock’s Long Bright River and BBC’s Dope Girls.

CTV

The broadcaster has renewed a number of originals, including second seasons of The Traitors Canada (Entourage Television), Sight Unseen (Blink49 Studios, Front Street Pictures) and Battle of the Generations (Bell Media Studio, Motion Content Group), season three of Sullivan’s Crossing (Topsail Entertainment, Reel World Management), the tenth season of The Amazing Race Canada (Insight Productions) and season four of Children Ruin Everything (New Metric Media).

Also returning is the second season of lifestyle series The Good Stuff with Mary Berg, the ninth season of CTV Your Morning, and season 23 of ETalk.

Playback has also confirmed that Shelved (Counterfeit Pictures) will not be returning for a second season, alongside the previously confirmed end of The Spencer Sisters (Entertainment One).

Among the fall acquisitions for CTV are ABC’s Doctor Odyssey, High Potential and Scamanda, CBS’s Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage and The Summit, NBC’s Happy’s Place and St. Denis Medical and Fox’s Rescue: Hi-Surf.

Specialty

Bell Media has ordered a slew of new unscripted titles for its CTV-branded channels, such as the true-crime series True CSI (working title) from Cineflix Productions and The Texas Cheerleader Murder Plot (Cream Productions).

Other new unscripted originals include Queen of the Castle (Blink49 Studios), featuring Canadian socialite Ann Kaplan Mulholland and her husband Stephen Mullholland as they revamp an English castle; The Last Captains (Big Time Decent), a docuseries following fishing families in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence; My Pet Ate What (Tyson Media), which tracks the exploits of a veterinarian and his patients; Rocky Mountain Wreckers (Great Pacific Media) which follows the crews tasked with clearing the winter highways of the American Rockies; and Shipwreck Kings (Forté Entertainment), which follows a salvager and his team of divers as they explore shipwrecks off the coast of Nova Scotia.

The scripted murder-mystery drama Revival (Blue Ice Pictures, Hemmings House) rounds out Bell Media’s original programming slate for its specialty channels.

Returning English-language series include Acting Good (Kistikan Pictures) on CTV Comedy, Bush Wreck Rescue (Omnifilm Entertainment), East Harbour Heroes (Attraction), Forensic Factor: A New Era (Bell Media Studios, Attraction), Highway Thru Hell (Great Pacific Media), The Mightiest (Bell Media Studios), Pets & Pickers (Tyson Media), SurrealEstate (Blue Ice Pictures) and Timber Titans (Great Pacific Media).

With files from Kelly Townsend

Image courtesy of Bell Media