With returning U.S. hits such as Ugly Betty, Men in Trees and Entourage, CHUM Television went to the L.A. screenings with few scheduling holes to fill for the 2007/08 season. Which is just as well, says VP of programming Ellen Baine.

‘If something else had grabbed our attention, sort of like Ugly Betty did last year, we certainly would’ve gone after it, but it wasn’t a fantastic year as far as new American primetime shows go,’ she tells Playback Daily, noting that the L.A. screenings were ‘lackluster’ at best.

CHUM did opt for a few new U.S. shows, including the one-hour spy comedy Chuck, about a computer geek-turned-government secret agent, starring Zachary Levi (Less Than Perfect), which will simulcast with NBC on Citytv stations. Also new is the supernatural dramedy Reaper, from executive producer Kevin Smith (Clerks), which shot its pilot for the CW network in Vancouver in April, also set for the Citys.

‘There seems to be a trend with a lot of the new shows this year to have geeks or nerds become heroes, which fits into our Citytv brand,’ notes Baine.

Chuck will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m., putting it opposite CBC’s sexed-up history series The Tudors and, presumably, the next season of House on Global. Global and CTV are due to announce their schedules next week. CHUM has not revealed the timeslots for any of its other titles. The company, or parts of it, is set to be taken over by CTVglobemedia, pending a ruling from the CRTC due later this year. Despite the all-but-complete buyout, the policy at CHUM appears to be ‘business as usual.’

Highlighting the Canadian contingent of new shows is the gritty Toronto-set cop series The Bridge, produced by Barna-Alper Productions, 990 Productions and Jonsworth Productions, and the Prairie comedy Less Than Kind, from Toronto’s Breakthrough Entertainment and Winnipeg’s Buffalo Gal Pictures. Baine says the shows will likely air on the City stations, though it has not been decided, since both are just going into production.

Meanwhile, the long-postponed CHUM-produced 10 x 60 drama Terminal City, which aired on The Movie Network and Movie Central, is back on the City fall schedule.

‘Last fall we had thought about running it as soon as the pay-TV window was over in March, but then decided to keep it until September so we can give it a better launch,’ Baine explains.

The CHUM-produced half-hour space saga Grand Star, formerly known as Ice Core, is slated to air on Space and A-Channel stations this fall, though there’s no sign on the schedule of the similar and long-delayed 22 x 60 Ice Planet, a coproduction with Toronto’s SpaceWorks Entertainment and Circles & Lines in Germany.

Other Canadian series set to air on the City stations include the 22 x 60 supernatural thriller Blood Ties, a CHUM copro with Toronto’s Kaleidoscope Entertainment and Vancouver’s Insight Film Studios, the mystery Across the River to Motor City, from Devine Entertainment and Jonsworth, and the detective series Murdoch Mysteries, produced by Shaftesbury Films.

With the exception of the Stanley Tucci medical drama 3lbs., which was cancelled mid-season by CBS, other U.S. fare returning to CHUM stations this fall includes America’s Next Top Model, Everybody Hates Chris, Supernatural, Smallville, Supernanny and The Bachelor. For specialty channel MuchMusic’s younger-skewing audience, CHUM will rerun Fox’s The O.C. It’s an unusual move for the music channel to pick up a scripted U.S. show, but Baine believes the soapy drama will fit well with the channel’s age group.

Though upbeat about the fall, and noting that ratings are important, Baine says CHUM does not necessarily look for the biggest hits of the season when acquiring new shows.

‘We feel if we can keep our target audience watching our station, we can keep it consistent, and keep our rating points consistent, which works out better for our advertisers,’ she says.

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This story has been corrected. It previously did not include Insight Film Studios as a co-producer of Blood Ties.