Actor Cory Monteith, seen in Santa Monica, Calif., in May, returns to Calgary as one of the presenters of the Gemini Awards on Saturday night. (Dan Steinberg/Associated Press)The Gemini Awards, honouring the best in Canadian television, will be broadcast live from Calgary Saturday night on Global and Showcase starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Veteran Canadian comedian Ron James will host the 24th annual Geminis for the first time.
The 90-minute show will feature a parade of celebrity presenters, including Calgary native Cory Monteith, star of the U.S. musical comedy series Glee, and CBC's George Stroumboulopoulos, host of The Hour, and Rick Mercer of The Rick Mercer Report.
This year's nominees include CTV's Flashpoint, ZOS: Zone of Separation from the Movie Network and Movie Central, and the CBC-TV shows Being Erica, The Border and The Tudors for best dramatic series.
Comedy nominees include the CBC-TV's The Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CMT's Three Chords From the Truth and Citytv's Less Than Kind.
Competing for the best reality show title are MuchMusic's DisBand, TVtropolis's GoldMind, Global's Project Runway Canada and CBC-TV's The Week the Women Went and Dragons' Den.
A special tribute will be given to three Canadian comedy programs — Air Farce, Corner Gas and Trailer Park Boys — which ended their runs in the past year.
A number of this year's 99 Geminis have been awarded in recent weeks. The Tudors took home four awards for best photography, best picture editing, best sound, and best production design or art direction.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's Gemini Awards were founded in 1979, and this year's event will be held for the first time in Calgary.
With files from The Canadian Press
