Canada’s CBC Unveils 2015-16 Programming Lineup

TORONTO: Canada’s CBC has announced its 2015-16 programming slate, including 11 new original productions and 14 returning series.

New dramas due out in the new season are When Calls the Heart, Banished, Love Child, This Life, The Romeo Section and Jekyll and Hyde. Comedies slated to air on CBC are Fool Canada, Please Like Me, Young Drunk Punk and Raised by Wolves, along with the digital titles Body Buds and Riftworld: Chronicles.

The network’s factual lineup is made up of Still Standing, Keeping Canada Alive and Hello Goodbye, plus the documentary strand First Hand. In addition, the channel is launching this summer the CBC Arts hub, a cross-platform approach to covering the arts. The initiative is set to bring together content from across the network, with new material appearing on multiple platforms, including Canada in the Frame, The Re-Education of Eddy Rogo and The Collective, as well as TV series Exhibitionists and Interrupt This Program.

On the sports front, CBC will cover big events including the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games, the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and more both on TV and through the soon-to-be-released CBC Sports App.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen shows and specials have been commissioned to return to the network. Those titles are Dragon’s Den, Coronation Street, Heartland, Murdoch Mysteries, Schitt’s Creek, Mr. D, X Company, Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, the Just for Laughs comedy specials, coverage of the Winnipeg and Ha!ifax comedy festivals, and news programs such as the fifth estate and Marketplace.

“Last year at this time we signaled a shift in our content strategy, looking for programs that take creative risks, are unmistakably Canadian, and that ultimately can compete with the best,” said Heather Conway, the executive VP of English services at CBC. “We delivered on that promise and next year’s lineup will see even more of what Canadians want from their public broadcaster, including a new arts strategy that will connect with Canadians’ passion for the arts. We’re ambitious, driving for relevance and working with the very best writers, producers and actors in the country. No one else in Canadian media is doing what CBC is doing.”