CTV lands Degrassi’s next generation
A girl leaves town to attend the 21st Banff Television Festival and comes back to find the mountains have moved to her desk!

Here’s the latest from the pile of press releases, emails and voice mails – with a bonus round from the rumour mill:

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MORE FIFTH FUSS: Still no peace in the valley at CBC’s multi-award-winning the fifth estate.
Word is war has escalated between exec producer Dave Studer and senior producer Susan Teskey – and that the latter may quit.

Meanwhile, CTV sources say several fifth staffers have applied for jobs at W-Five.

As for who will replace co-host Francine Pelletier, bet on CBC-TV News’ Anna Maria Tremonti, currently in Washington.

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DEGRASSI IS GREENER: Good news for fans of Degrassi Street.
Seems that yet another sequel – Degrassi: The Next Generation – will hit the air next season.

But don’t be looking for it on its home network CBC, which had plans to run it as a TV movie.

CTV has scooped it up, with a big bucks series commitment plus funding for a companion Web site.

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DOUBLE TROUBLE: Newsworld’s counterSpin With Avi Lewis, the only talk show on mainstream TV that doesn’t toe the corporatist line, is doubling to an hour in the fall.
What’s more, a studio audience will be tossed into the mix.

This already-lively debate show promises to get hot, hot, hot as the weather starts to get cold.

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SIGN-OFF: Game over for Sports Night.
The terrific half hour from Aaron (West Wing) Sorkin, which ABC cancelled this spring, won’t be on any network.

Even though the U.S. cable channel Showtime made a $37 million U.S. offer for 44 episodes, Sorkin turned it down because he felt he couldn’t write both it and West Wing.

Now that’s integrity.

If David E. Kelley hadn’t been so hubristic and/or greedy last season by having five series on the schedule – Ally McBeal, Ally, The Practice, Snoops and Chicago Hope – maybe they wouldn’t have all sucked as much as they did.

This year, the crash and burn will likely be Dick Wolf, who has Law & Order, its Special Victims Unit spin-off and the new Deadline. I hear the pilot barked so bad, it’s now being retooled.

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UDDER RAT: What’s a TV column without a Survivor reference?
CBS says that, on July 5, one of the tribes splits over a remark made by one of the guys. Something about women and cows.

My bet is that the offender is not grizzled Rudy the Navy SEAL or Dirk the homophobic Christian but either Tagi’s Dr. Sean, he of the whacko fishing poles and bowling alleys, or Pagong’s macho Joel.

As for the voted-off Ramona, she told CBS’ The Early Show yesterday that her inability to co-operate with everybody was due to her lifelong “issues.”

“I’m an only child,” she said.