From a media release:
Proven, powerful, and pedigreed. Today Rogers Media unveils City’s 2017/18 programming schedule, building on last season’s proven hits with bold new additions backed by some of the most creative minds in television today. Rogers Media president, Rick Brace, and senior vice president of television & broadcast operations, Colette Watson, together with the executive team will present the new schedule to advertisers and media this afternoon at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Comedies
This broadcast year, City had three of the Top 10 and eight of the Top 20 comedy hits4, and City will continue to bring the laughs with five new comedy series for the 2017/18 season. Joining the fall lineup, The Orville, from Emmy Award-winning executive producer and creator Seth MacFarlane and director Jon Favreau, is an irreverent workplace sci-fi adventure comedy set 400 years in the future that follows the adventures of the U.S.S. Orville, an exploratory spaceship, and the familiar and funny everyday challenges of its human and alien crew. The weird and wonderful out-of-this-world theme continues with Ghosted, when a cynical skeptic (Craig Robinson, The Office) and a genius “true believer” (Adam Scott, Parks and Recreation, Big Little Lies) are recruited to investigate unexplained phenomena in Los Angeles – all the while uncovering a larger mystery that could threaten the existence of the human race. Canadian cult classic Fubar moves to the small screen, propelling beloved characters Terry and Dean into the modern age. New-to-City, Speechless starring Minnie Driver joins the schedule in mid-season, along with new Will Ferrell-produced commuter comedy LA to Vegas.
Dramas
Power and political games drive City’s scripted drama slate for the 2017/18 season with four new series joining the lineup. A City original, Bad Blood follows the true-crime saga of one of Canada’s most notorious mob families, a revenge story of Godfather-like proportions. New-to-City this fall, hit series The Blacklist joins the schedule with prime-time’s favourite fugitive-turned F.B.I informant, “Red” Reddington (James Spader), as he teams up with his hand-picked profiler to work through his own “most wanted” list of criminals. Coming in 2018, Versailles is a lush Canadian drama about Louis XIV, and the darkness, ambition, and manipulation that simmers just beneath the gilded surface of the Sun King’s court. Also, a young doctor’s ethics are tested when The Resident, starring Canadians Emily VanCamp and Bruce Greenwood, joins City’s schedule in mid-season.
Returning Favourites
Proven hits and fan favourites return as City confirms the renewal of 16 prime-time series, delivering more laugh-out-loud moments, dramatic plot twists, and thrilling competition through the 2017/18 season. Returning series include The Bachelor franchise, Black-ish, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Family Guy, Hell’s Kitchen, Hockey Night in Canada, Last Man on Earth, Lethal Weapon, Life in Pieces, The Mick, The Middle, Modern Family, Mom, New Girl, Nirvanna The Band The Show,and Scorpion.
New Series:
BAD BLOOD
60-minute Canadian scripted drama series
Thursdays at 8 p.m.
National broadcast
Inspired by reputed mobster Vito Rizzuto, and based on the best-selling book, Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto’s Last War by Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards, Bad Blood: The Vito Rizzuto Story is a six-part limited event series. While imprisoned in Colorado’s Supermax Prison for the murders of three Bonanno family members, Rizzuto watches helplessly as the thriving empire he built is dismantled, and his closest friends and family members are mysteriously murdered one by one. When Rizzuto is finally released from prison, a Shakespearean-level revenge tale plays out – leading to the brutal murders of his closest companions, and ultimately the death of Rizzuto himself.
PRODUCTION COMPANY: New Metric Media, Sphere Media, and DHX Media
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Michael Konyves, Simon Barry
CAST: Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace), Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy), Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas), Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint)
FUBAR: THE AGE OF THE COMPUTER
30-minute Canadian scripted comedy series
Sundays at 10:30 p.m.
National broadcast
Based on the beloved film franchise and hurdling it into the modern age, Fubar: The Age of the Computer finds Terry and Dean fleeing from the wildfires of Fort McMurray in a desperate retreat to Calgary, with nothing but emergency government debit cards to their names. Discovering high-speed Internet for the first time, Terry is exposed to a world of commerce and social media and attempts to harness the web to make a profit. Meanwhile, Dean embarks on a journey to record a triple-concept album using his burnt bass guitar and extreme falsetto voice.
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Busted Tranny Productions Ltd Cardinal Film Inc., Vice Studio Canada
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Michael Dowse
CAST: David Lawrence (Freezer Burn), Paul Spence (It’s All Gone, Pete Tong)
