Vancouver: Until the Canadian Television Fund picks the survivors of this year’s edition of The Great Canadian Funding Challenge, domestic broadcasters are hedging comments about the coming fall season’s renewals.

Nonetheless, there are long-form, serial shows that seem to have immunity.

At CanWest Global, cop drama Blue Murder (Barna-Alper Productions) is back for another 13 one-hours. And Peace Arch Entertainment’s music agency sitcom Big Sound has been renewed for a second season of 18 half-hours. Salter Street’s half-hour Blackfly will also return for another season.

Global’s non-Canadian-content, syndicated shows, including Gene Roddenberry’s space trek series Andromeda (Fireworks) and Outer Limits (Alliance Atlantis) will be back for a second and sixth season of 22 episodes, respectively.

The substantial audience success of Popstars, the reality show about creating a new girl band, means Global is in talks with Lone Eagle Productions to do a new version on the creation of a boy-girl band.

‘Last year, we really went after half-hours – with mixed success,’ says Loren Mawhinney, Global’s VP of Canadian production. ‘Popstars has done really well while other half-hours have done less well.’ Big Sound, she notes, has ‘okay’ ratings. Television critics swatted Blackfly.

‘We’re not going to change that [half-hour] strategy this season,’ Mawhinney explains, ‘but we’ll reassess the situation for [fall 2002] to see whether we’ll try more docudramas or other formats. Like the rest of the international market, we’re certainly looking at contest shows such as Survivor, The Mole and Big Brother.’

With that in mind, Global is in talks with Lions Gate Entertainment to produce an eco-challenge-inspired reality show. No other details were available at press time.

At the CBC, coroner series DaVinci’s Inquest (Haddock Entertainment) is back for a fourth season of 13 one-hours. Half-hour teen soap Edgemont (Water Street Productions) will return for a third season, and Rick Mercer’s Made in Canada (Salter Street) is also coming back for a third season.

Our Hero (Decode Entertainment), an interactive series, will be back as will perennial series The Red Green Show (S&S Productions), This Hour Has 22 Minutes (Salter Street) and Just For Laughs (Les Films Rozon).

A new one-hour drama from Alberta is also in the works. Last season’s series Drop The Beat and These Arms of Mine will not return next fall.

At CTV, cop show Cold Squad (Keatley MacLeod Productions) will be back for a fifth season. Last year, the Alliance Atlantis production did 20 episodes, but will return to an order of 13 one-hours this fall. ‘Twenty was really hard,’ concedes producer Julia Keatley. ‘The show has generated consistently strong ratings – a 5% increase across the board last year.’

Word from the CFTPA meetings in February suggested that law series The Associates would expand to 18 episodes in its second season with producer Alliance Atlantis finding funding outside of the CTF for five episodes beyond the more traditional order of 13. The initiative, which was not confirmed at press time, appears to be connected with the BCE/CTV benefits package.

Lions Gate will produce a second season of the paranormal series Mysterious Ways for CTV and Pax. And CTV series Higher Ground, a story about troubled teens, may also go into a second season of production.

Vancouver’s Studio B Productions is in development with CTV for a second season of baseball-play bird animated series D’Myna Leagues.

No word on Alliance Atlantis series CSI (shown on CTV and CBS), though audience numbers might suggest a second season. *

-www.canwestglobal.com

-www.cbc.ca

-www.ctv.ca