Global Television Announces Primetime Acquisitions for Fall Season

(andPOP) - CanWest MediaWorks, parent company of Global Television and the new E! station, has acquired 15 new series to debut in the fall.

The announcement comes about two weeks before the Canadian company unveils the fall schedules for its channels to advertisers and media.

"Over the last two seasons, CanWest has brought Canadian viewers more of television's new primetime hits than any other broadcaster," said Barbara Williams, Senior Vice President, Programming & Production for CanWest MediaWorks. "With this week's acquisitions, we're looking forward to building on that track record. Our audiences are going to see compelling new programs on both Global and E! that will entertain them, engage them, and keep them talking."

With seven shows returning from last year's batch of acquisitions – including the smash hit Heroes – Global will add to its fall lineup such shows as the much buzzed about Bionic Woman (from the executive producer of Battlestar Galactica) and Back to You (starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton).

Here is a complete list of new shows:
BACK TO YOU
(30 min; comedy)
In the 90s, the local TV news scene in Pittsburgh was dominated by one team: Chuck
Darling (Kelsey Grammer) and Kelly Carr (Patricia Heaton). They had that elusive
chemistry all news teams need - at least on-screen. Off-screen, Chuck was a bit of
an egomaniacal womanizer, Kelly a bit of an uptight know-it-all. Now, years later,
egos collide as the team reunites to take the newscast back to No. 1.

CAST: Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond), Fred
Willard (Anchorman), Ty Burrell (In Good Company)


CANE
(1 hour; drama)
This multi-generational, Latin family saga explores the evolution of the American
Dream - past, present and future. Internal struggles and external rivalries surround
a Cuban-American family who has built an empire in the sugar and rum industries.
Will family allegiance come first, or will their secrets and acrimonious conflicts
over love, lust and control of the family fortune be their downfall?

CAST: Alona Tal, Eddie Matos, Hector Elizondo, Jimmy Smits (The West Wing), Lina
Esco, Michael Trevino, Nestor Carbonell, Paola Turbay, Polly Walker (Rome), Rita
Moreno, Sam Carmen


BIONIC WOMAN
(1 hour; drama)
Struggling as a bartender and surrogate mom to her teenage sister, Jaime Sommers
didn't think life could get much harder. But when a devastating car accident leaves
her at death's door, Jaime's only hope for survival is a cutting-edge, top-secret
technology that comes at a hefty price. With a whole new existence and a debt to
re-pay, Jaime must figure out how to use her extraordinary abilities for good, while
weighing the personal sacrifices she will have to make.

CAST: Michelle Ryan (EastEnders), Mae Whitman (State of Grace), Miguel Ferrer
(Crossing Jordan), Chris Bowers (Rescue Me), Will Yun Lee (Witchblade), Molly Price
(Third Watch)


CASHMERE MAFIA
(1 hour; drama)
Four successful women support each other through rocky marriages, rival colleagues,
kids' recitals and the hunt for the perfect Manhattan loft. >From producer Darren
Star (Sex and the City) and writer Kevin Wade (Working Girl) comes a compelling,
intimate look at an ensemble of high-powered women and their willingness to have it
all -- without giving an inch.

CAST: Lucy Liu (Ally McBeal, Charlie's Angels), Frances O'Connor (Iron Jawed
Angels), Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings), Bonnie Somerville (NYPD Blue, Kitchen
Confidential)


VIVA LAUGHLIN
(1 hour; drama)
Executive produced by Tony and Emmy Award winner Hugh Jackman (The Boy from Oz,
X-Men) and directed by Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness), comes this
rollicking musical about Ripley Holden and his family as they attempt to run a
casino in Laughlin, Nevada. Eternal optimist and businessman Ripley Holden (Lloyd
Owen) is on the brink of success when his casino, that's nowhere near completion,
loses its financing. Forced to ask his biggest rival, Nicky Fontana (Hugh Jackman),
for help, Holden can't help but see the sunny side of things. Using upbeat
contemporary songs to accentuate the drama and humor and advance the story, the
series is based on the hit BBC show "Viva Blackpool".

CAST: Lloyd Owen (Miss Potter), Melanie Griffith (Twins), Carter Jenkins (Surface),
D.B. Woodside (24), Ellen Woglom, Eric Winter, Madchen Amick (Joey), P.J. Byrne,
guest starring Hugh Jackman (X-Men)


JOURNEYMAN
(1 hour; drama)
A romantic mystery-drama about Dan Vasser, a San Francisco newspaper reporter and
family man, who inexplicably begins to travel through time and changes people's
lives. Along the way, he must deal with difficulties at work and at home due to his
sudden disappearances. Things get more complicated as Dan travels through the
decades - he may be able to reunite with his long-lost fiancée but what about his
present-day life with his wife and son?

CAST: Kevin McKidd (Rome), Moon Bloodgood (Day Break), Gretchen Egolf (Martial Law),
Reed Diamond (Homicide: Life on the Street), Charles Henry Wyson


LIFE
(1 hour; drama)
Offbeat Detective Charlie Crews is given a second chance when he returns to the
force after years in prison. Thanks to close friend and attorney, Constance
Griffiths, Crews comes back from serving time for a crime he didn't commit with a
decidedly different philosophy on life, not to mention unique insights into crime
solving. As he re-enters a world that's moved on without him, Crews must walk
through the painful cobwebs of his past.

CAST: Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers), Melissa Sagemiller (Sleeper Cell), Sarah
Shahi (Rush Hour 3), Robin Weigart (Deadwood), Adam Arkin (Chicago Hope)


CANTERBURY'S LAW
(1 hour; drama)
Elizabeth Canterbury is a rebellious female defense attorney who's willing to bend
the law in order to protect the wrongfully accused. Putting her career on the line
to take on risky and unpopular cases, Canterbury's not easily discouraged - even
when her career takes a toll on her personal life. From executive producers Denis
Leary and Jim Serpico (Rescue Me, The Job).

CAST: Julianna Margulies (The Sopranos, ER), Ben Shenkman (Love Monkey), Jocko Sims
(Dreamgirls), Linus Roache (Kidnapped), Trieste Dunn


IN PLAIN SIGHT
(1 hour; drama)
Mary McCormack (Traffic: The Miniseries, The West Wing) stars as Mary Shannon, a
U.S. Federal Marshal living a secret life. Working for the highly secretive Witness
Protection Branch she must juggle the lives of relocated Federal Witnesses - career
criminals, compulsive liars, thieves and murderers - in addition to her own
intensely dysfunctional family, including a delinquent sister, Nichole Hiltz (NYPD
Blue, Strong Medicine) and an in-denial mother, Lesley Ann Warren (Desperate
Housewives, Will & Grace). Directed by Mark Piznarski (Veronica Mars, Everwood),
executive produced by Paul Stupin (Dawson's Creek, Beautiful People) and written and
Exec-Produced by David Maples (Home Improvement, Huff).

CAST: Frederick Weller (Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Shape of Things) as
Marshall Mann, Todd Williams (Tilt, Third Watch) as Bobby D., Cristian de la Fuente
(CSI: Miami) as Raphael


WOMEN'S MURDER CLUB
(1 hour; drama)
Four working women in San Francisco - a detective, a district attorney, a medical
examiner and a reporter - use their expertise and unique talents to solve murder
cases. Through their unique friendship, they realize that pooling their resources
during investigations leads to undiscovered clues and answers in both work and their
personal lives. Based on James Patterson's bestselling novels.

CAST: Angie Harmon (Law & Order), Aubrey Dollar, Elizabeth Ho, Canadian Laura Harris
(Dead Like Me)


NEW AMSTERDAM
(1 hour; drama)
A New York homicide detective unlike any other - John Amsterdam is brilliant,
mysterious, reckless, magnetic - and immortal. A mixed blessing, Amsterdam's
immortality has spanned over three centuries and lovers and children have died while
he remains young. According to the spell, not until he finds his true love will
Amsterdam ever be truly whole and ready to return to his mortal state.

CAST: Nikolaj Coster Waldau (Firewall), Alexie Gilmore (Descent), Stephen Henderson,
Zuleikha Robinson (Rome)


KID NATION
(1 hour; reality)
A reality-based series in which 40 kids will have 40 days to build a new world - in
a ghost town that died during the 19th Century. These kids, ages 8-15, will spend
more than a month without their parents in Bonanza City, N.M., learning how to cook
their own meals, haul their own water and even run their own businesses. Fighting
the urge to break every rule they've ever known, they will cope with regular
childhood emotions and situations, including homesickness and peer pressure.


K-VILLE
(1 hour; drama)
Two years after Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans is still in chaos.
Criminals roam the streets with AK-47s, many cops have quit, and the jails, police
stations and crime labs still haven't been rebuilt. But the cops who remain have
courage to burn and a passion to reclaim their city. From the Victorian mansions of
the Garden District to the rubble of the Lower 9th Ward, the stakes could not be
higher in K-VILLE.

CAST: Cole Hauser (The Break-Up), Tawny Cypress (Heroes), Anthony Anderson ('Til
Death), Blake Shields, John Carroll Lynch (Zodiac), Maximiliano Hernández (Law &
Order)


Life Is Wild
(1 hour; drama)
A New York veterinarian uproots his second wife and their two sets of children and
moves to a South African game reserve, run by his father-in-law. While they are
definitely outsiders, the family is nevertheless beginning to love the breathtaking
vistas of the bush country and the vibrant culture enveloping them. Based on the
highly acclaimed British series, Wild at Heart.

CAST: Leah Pipes (Clubhouse), K'sun Ray (Smith), Judith Hoag (Armageddon), Andrew
St. John (General Hospital), Mary Matilyn Mouser


SWINGTOWN
(1 hour; drama)
Set in the 1970s, an era of provocative change, Swingtown centers around one
family's move into an affluent Chicago suburb, only to discover their neighbours
share much more than just recipes. Introduced to a world of possibility, including
open marriages, Bruce and Susan Miller are confronted with personal choices,
experimentation and shifting attitudes. From Director Alan Poul (Six Feet Under).

CAST: Canadian Molly Parker (Deadwood), Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Man's Chest), Grant Show (Melrose Place), Lana Parrilla (24), Shanna Collins
(Wildfire), Aaron Howles, Brittany Robertson (Freddie)