Move over NBC. Space, CTV and Fox International Channels have returned for a second season of The Listener from Shaftesbury Films.

All three channels ordered another 13 episodes of the Canadian drama, which has been sold widely internationally by Shine International, even after the Peacock channel walked away.

Shaftesbury CEO Christina Jennings isn’t surprised. She insists the second-season pickup undermines a long-standing belief that an American sale is crucial to a Canadian drama’s success because it usually covers most of the production cost.

‘A Canadian series can work in the world. It is irrelevant what it does in the U.S. market,’ she says.

The second season of The Listener will be financed largely like the first, by CTV’s licence fee and Shine’s distribution advance.

Shine in turn has largely resold the one-hour drama into a slew of international markets, including Japan and Brazil, and to Fox International.

‘Thanks to our partnership with Shaftesbury and Fox International, we created a new and different financing model that brought The Listener to viewers in every country of the world,’ says Shine EVP John Pollak.

The Listener ‘didn’t work in the States. So it didn’t work in the States,’ Jennings added dismissively, before insisting NBC failed to promote the drama properly.

Sharon Tal Yguado, SVP of content development at Fox International, says the first 13 hours of The Listener performed fine for her cable and satellite TV markets in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

‘We are excited about a second season and look forward to working with our creative partners to continue to develop the show to its maximum potential,’ she said in a statement.

Jennings says the writing room for The Listener will shortly be up and running, and production should restart in spring 2010 after a half-dozen scripts are completed.