With its second season all but officially greenlit, CBC’s hit comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie has beefed up its story department with two principal writers it pulled away from CTV rival Corner Gas.

Gas showrunner Paul Mather and story editor Rob Sheridan jumped ship after they were approached by Mosque co-executive producer Mary Darling, who brushes off the bold acquisitions from their competitor as mere ‘coincidence.’

‘We approached several people that we thought would fit in seamlessly,’ says Darling, who produces through Regina- and Toronto-based WestWind Pictures, adding that Mather and Sheridan were interested right off the bat.

A spokesperson for Gas broadcaster CTV, which has not commented on Mather and Sheridan’s departure, says the net will make an announcement about its plans for Gas next week.

While it was a ‘difficult decision,’ Mather says he wanted to do something different after five seasons with Gas, adding that there was something intriguing about Mosque. ‘I think there’s a real potential to go into a lot of different directions the show hasn’t gone before,’ he says.

Mather steps on board as head writer and showrunner, while Sheridan will fill the story editor role, joining the current Mosque writing department of Rebecca Schechter, Al Rae, Susan Flanders and Jackie May.

Little Mosque, with its button-pushing title and controversial themes, burst onto the scene on Jan. 9, when its first episode nabbed a record-breaking 2.1 million viewers for CBC, amid intense media interest. The show, from creator Zarqa Nawaz, has averaged 1.27 million viewers season-to-date, becoming a rare scripted series to succeed recently for the Ceeb, following a string of failures including Rumours, October 1970 and Jozi-H.

Darling says Mosque‘s bigger ‘fleshed-out’ story department has already started work on the sophomore season in anticipation of CBC’s official order, which is expected to up the number of episodes next week. Season one, which consists of eight eps, airs its finale March 7.

Mosque will be shopped at MIPTV in April, according to Darling, who says there are lots of sales pending for Europe, the Middle East and the U.S.

‘We could try to sell those eight episodes, but we’ve decided to negotiate after we know what the new order from CBC is,’ she says.