Ron James comedy, skating reality show set for CBC-TV schedule
Western drama Wild Roses cancelled
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 | 1:20 PM ET
CBC News
New shows featuring comedian Ron James as well as figure skaters and hockey players taking part in a reality competition will join returning programs like Being Erica and Rick Mercer Report on CBC-TV's new schedule.
The public broadcaster announced new additions to its upcoming fall-winter 2009 programming lineup in a statement issued Tuesday.
For the fall, James is set to offer up his observational comedy in The Ron James Show, while Battle of the Blades will see teams of Canadian figure skaters and hockey stars matched to compete each week in an elimination-style challenge.
Also debuting in the fall will be Super Speller, a competition show for young Canadians hosted by CBC personality Evan Solomon.
Two new shows will premiere during the winter: 18 to Life, a domestic comedy about a couple who marry at 18, and The Republic of Doyle, a one-hour, St. John's-set dramatic comedy about a dysfunctional father-son private investigator team.
Along with Being Erica and Mercer Report, returning to the schedule are The Border, Little Mosque on the Prairie, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Tudors, Dragons' Den, Heartland, Coronation Street and The Hour.
In March, CBC announced it would produce fewer episodes of some of its prime-time shows, such as 22 Minutes, Little Mosque and Being Erica, due to overall programming cuts.
Wild Roses cancelled
Wild Roses, the Calgary-based drama about two families duelling over oil, has been cancelled, CBC spokesman Jeff Keay confirmed. Rumours of the show's demise had spread of late, with a group of fans banding together on Facebook to sing its praises in an attempt to save it.
The cancellation of Wild Roses follows that of two-year-old sitcom Sophie and long-running runway chronicle Fashion File, announced in March. Daytime lifestyle chat show Steven & Chris was placed on indefinite hiatus.
There are also no current plans for another instalment of the reality series The Week the Women Went, "but that's really more a function of the fact that we have some resource issues," Keay said, citing "funding reductions" that will also scuttle new editions of occasional, one-off programs such as Test The Nation.
"We'll have more announcements later this summer," he said, adding that there are currently no changes planned for the summer schedule.
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