Network: CBC Television Network
Broadcast Run: 2008
Broadcast Medium: Television
Produced by Shaftesbury Films, the Murdoch Mysteries series made its debut on CITY-TV on January 24th 2008, and ran for thirteen episodes through to April 2008. Series Two ran from February through May 2009, Series Three from February through May 2010, and Series Four began on CITY-TV on June 7th and played through August 2011.
In November 2011 CITY-TV announced that they would not be commissioning any further episodes of Murdoch Mysteries. They still held rights to Season Five episodes, and would be airing them in 2012. However, the CBC quickly acquired the future Canadian rights to the series, and announced that they would be committing to a sixth season.
The fifth season of Murdoch Mysteries aired on CITY-TV between June and August 2012, with the sixth season premiering on CBC-TV on January 7th 2013, and running to April 13th. Meanwhile, CITY continued to air repeats of earlier Murdoch episodes throughout the first half of 2013.
In April 2013 CBC confirmed that they would be producing a seventh season of Murdoch Mysteries for broadcast in 2014. It was later reported that 18 episodes would be produced, rather than the usual 13, and the series began on September 30th 2013.
On July 27th, the series began running on the U.S. specialty channel Ovation, under a new title, “The Artful Detective”, starting with season one.
On April 4th 2014, the CBC announced that Murdoch Mysteries would return to the schedule for the 2014-25 season. Interestingly, when the CBC announced its fall schedule on May 29th, Murdoch Mysteries was shown not only with original eighth-season episodes at 8:00 pm Mondays, but also in stripping Monday to Friday 7:00 – 8:00pm. Executive Producers included: Peter Mitchell, Cal Coons, Noel Hedges, Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie.
On March 4th 2015, the CBC announced that a further eighteen one-hour episodes would be produced for broadcast in the Fall of 2015, and the series continued into the 2016-17 season.
On December 1st 2016, the perfortmers’ union ACTRA announced that Yannick Bisson, star of the hit show Murdoch Mysteries, would be presented with ACTRA Toronto’s 2017 Award of Excellence at a gala show and party on February 25, 2017 in Toronto.
On March 13, 2017, CBC renewed the show for an eleventh season of 18 episodes plus a two-hour Christmas special. The new series began on October 10, 2017.
Subsequent renewals took the series through to the 2018-19 season, and on March 25th the CBC announced that a further 18 60-minute episodes would be going into production for the 2019-2020 season.
On August 11th, 2020, Shaftesbury Films announced that despite the Covoid-19 pandemic problems, Murdoch Mysteries had begun production on Season 14 in Toronto, with a reduced 11-episode season set to start airing on CBC-TV and CBC Gem in winter 2021. Star Yannick Bisson was set to direct the first two episodes of the new series, while Peter Mitchell, Gary Harvey, Warren Sonoda, Mina Shum, and Ruba Nadda would direct additional episodes.
Season 14 would continue to explore new developments in the lives of Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson), Dr. Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy), Inspector Thomas Brackenreid (Thomas Craig), Constables George Crabtree (Jonny Harris), Henry Higgins-Newsome (Lachlan Murdoch), Violet Hart (Shanice Banton), and Detective Llewelyn Watts (Daniel Maslany) Returning cast members would also include Arwen Humphreys and Siobhan Murphy.