Network: CTV Television Network
Broadcast Run: 2002 to 2005
Broadcast Medium: Television
Another in a long line of Canadian drama series to come to CTV from the creative teams at Alliance Atlantis, who produced the highly successful series E.N.G., The Eleventh Hour also used a television studio as home base. The one-hour program dealt with the lives and work of a team of investigative journalists, correspondents, camera crews and editors, as they researched, produced and presented stories for a fictional, W5-type program titled The Eleventh Hour.
Sonja Smits and John Neville headed an ensemble cast that also included Shawn Doyle, Waneta Storms, Peter MacNeill, Tanya Reid and Jeff Seymour. Creators Semi Chelias and Ilana Frank were co-Executive Producers. Eleventh Hour joined the CTV schedule on Tuesday November 26th 2002 at 10:00pm. and started with an initial 13-episode commitment.
Ratings for the first series were disappointing, but the series won a Gemini as best dramatic series in 2003, and CTV remained committed to trying to make Eleventh Hour work. A second season was launched on February 15th 2004, with an avowed intent to offer more ‘guns and bums’, as Semi Chelias’s good friend actor Paul Gross had suggested would help the series..
The series debuted on Tuesday evenings at 10pm in 2002, moved to Sundays at 10pm in the 2003-2004 season, and moved again to Saturdays at 10pm in 2004-2005, but the program was not renewed for 2005-2006