CBC Television unveiled its fall lineup today and, true to the speculation out on the street, it features more of the reality-show genre. (It also, unfortunately, also featured Brian Williams on the promotional pinwheel, clearly printed before Williams defected to CTV.)

The Canadian One will be a star-search kind of show for undiscovered music talent. And yes, even the Ceeb acknowledged it “will not be able to escape comparison to the popular Canadian Idol.”
     This One is based on The One, a star-search program that has done well in Denmark and Britain. ABC starts airing the American version next month. But here’s the kicker. Once the talent are selected through auditions, they must live and train together as well as perform on stage. In Quebec, a French-language version of the concept called Star Academy has been a huge hit.

And if you haven’t gotten your reality fill by then… there’s

Test the Nation: A national IQ test — a live quiz show that tests participants’ analytical skills. Underdogs: Wendy Mesley helps five pissed off consumers fight back against business (I’d *pay* to watch this on pay-per-view!). Dragon’s Den: will ask entrepreneurs to negotiate the world of business financing. Uh, yeah.

Intelligence, a new series about present-day Canadian criminal and intelligence cases, Canadian-South African production Jozi-H, about an international band of doctors working in a chaotic hospital, and Rumours, a comedy about modern life inside a Toronto women’s magazine.

A 10-hour series called Hockey: A People’s History, produced in-house, will trace the history of hockey in Canada. It is scheduled for Sunday prime time and filmed in high definition. CBC’s Hockey: A People’s History will include a recreation of an 1883 game in Montreal.

The Hour, hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos, has been added to the main network at 11 p.m. and will be developed into more of a late-night talk show with a studio audience. It remains on Newsworld at 8 p.m.

The fall lineup also features a Thursday night slot devoted to documentaries.

What others are saying about the lineup:

• Season’s meetings, azerb, Toronto Star
• CBC-TV reveals fall lineup heavy with reality-based shows; ‘stakes high’, Canadian Press
• CBC aims to attract the young, Globe and Mail
• CBC fall lineup leans heavily on reality shows, CBC.ca

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