Citytv celebrates Canadian storytelling with new 2019/20 original programming slate

From a media release:

A cop-and-canine crime-fighting duo, an 1880s photographer with a macabre specialty, and an intergalactic space queen are among the weirdly wonderful characters coming to Citytv in 2019/20. The new original Canadian programming slate includes scripted series Hudson & Rex (Season 2), Dead Still, and Vagrant Queen. And with six new Canadian shows in development for Citytv, there are even more original stories to come for TV lovers.

With a Season 2 order for Hudson & Rex, Citytv’s popular original Canadian scripted series returns to the Fall schedule with more of what audiences love. Produced by Shaftesbury and Pope Productions Ltd., in association with Citytv and Beta Film GmbH, the police-procedural drama set in St. John’s, Nfld. follows detective Charlie Hudson (John Reardon, Van Helsing) and his German Shepherd partner, Rex (canine Diesel vom Burgimwald). Hudson & Rex is Citytv’s highest-rated original scripted series since 2015, reaching more than 2.5M viewers during its first six debut episodes*. Based on the Austrian drama Inspector Rex, Hudson & Rex also stars Mayko Nguyen (Killjoys) as Doctor Sarah Truong, Kevin Hanchard (Orphan Black) as Superintendent Joe Donovan, and Justin Kelly (Wynonna Earp) as Tech Analyst Jesse Mills.

Citytv works with some of the most innovative content creators and global partners to bring to life great new stories to appeal to Canadians, and indeed, international audiences. Building on the success of Hudson & Rex, Citytv again collaborates with Toronto-based Shaftesbury on the new series Dead Still, an Ireland/Canada treaty co-production, with RTE as the Irish broadcaster and Acorn TV in the U.S. And a fierce new heroine also joins Citytv as live-action sci-fi drama series Vagrant Queen brings the graphic novel story to a whole new audience in a Canada/South Africa treaty co-production by Toronto’s Blue Ice Pictures, also broadcast on Syfy in the U.S. Both series join the Citytv schedule in 2020.

Hudson & Rex, Dead Still, and Vagrant Queen are the newest chapters in Citytv’s ongoing commitment to tell great stories by and for Canadians. Championing Canadian independent producers and production companies across the country, Citytv supports the local industry and invests in homegrown talent with commissions that capture Canada’s rich regional character. Citytv’s original content celebrates our uniquely Canadian perspective and delivers world-class entertainment to 30 million Canadians every week.

Citytv’s New Original Series Descriptions

Broadcast dates/times to be announced in the coming months

DEAD STILL
Citytv ventures to 1880s Ireland, during the earliest days of photography, with the original light-hearted drama series Dead Still. Brock Blennerhasset (Michael Smiley, Luther) is a master photographer with the unusual specialty of “memorial photography” – taking pictures of the dead. And he’s making a killing. But not every photo captures tranquil and eternal repose. The photographer and his assistant Connal Molloy (Kerr Logan, Alias Grace), find themselves embroiled in his subjects’ mysterious deaths or murders. Dead Still blends mystery and drama with gallows humour to present a comic thriller with a witty take on the complications of working as a photographer in the early years of the practice. Dead Still also stars Eileen O’Higgens (Brooklyn), Mark Rendall (Versailles), Martin Donovan (Big Little Lies), Aidan O’Hare (Jackie), Jimmy Smallhorne (Taken Down), and Peter Campion (Derry Girls).

VAGRANT QUEEN
Featuring an all-female team of writers and directors led by Jem Garrard, Vagrant Queen is a live-action adaptation of the popular graphic novel. Driven from her throne as a child, queen Elida (Adriyan Rae, Light as a Feather) has wandered the galaxy for 15 years, scavenging for space junk and trying to evade a Republic government out to extinguish her millennia-old bloodline. When old frenemy Isaac (Tim Rozon, Wynona Earp) shows up claiming her mother is still alive, they return to her former kingdom to stage a rescue – bringing Elida face-to-face with a deadly foe from her childhood, Commander Lazaro (Paul du Toit, Maze Runner). Executive Producers are Lance Samuels and Daniel Iron.

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5 thoughts on “Citytv celebrates Canadian storytelling with new 2019/20 original programming slate”

  1. Just a thought…CityTV emphasized that they are telling “Canadian” stories. One co-pro is set in Ireland about Irish characters and the other co-pro The Vagrant Queen is set in another world and based on graphic novels written by an American. Not that I think they shouldn’t be making these stories but maybe they shouldn’t necessarily be labeled as “Canadian” stories.

    1. A “Canadian” story doesn’t have to be set in Canada, just has to be written by a Canadian. That’s how you get Canadian science fiction, speculative fiction, etc… Believe me, I’d love to see more TV shows set in Canada, particularly Western Canada (i.e. the Prairies) and Eastern Canada (i.e. the Maritimes) I think there has been an overabundance of shows set in Toronto so it’s nice to see the other regions of the country represented. For example, on APTN’s “Caution: My Contain Nuts”, several segments are shot on location at Fort Edmonton Park, and their hilarious “Mall Pirates” segments are filmed on and around the Santa Maria replica at West Edmonton Mall.

      1. Oops! Sorry, that should have read APTN’s “Caution: May Contain Nuts”.

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