Degrassi Starts the Year with a New Timeslot and a New Generation of Fans
Friday, January 23, 2004

Toronto, Ontario (January 16, 2004)-
Degrassi: The Next Generation is set to start the New Year with a new timeslot. Degrassi moves to Mondays beginning January 26th with the first of a two-part special episode entitled Accidents Will Happen at 8:00 pm ET.

The episode finds Manny (Cassie Steele) facing one of the biggest decisions of her life and concludes February 2nd in Degrassis new regular timeslot, Mondays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CTV (check local listings), where it will be paired with hit series, The OC, at 9 p.m. ET.

This fall, Degrassi had the largest average audience for all Canadian national drama series, drawing an average of 669,000 viewers*, an increase of 44% compared to last year. In the 2003-2004 season, Degrassi has reached 6,700,000 Canadians aged 2-plus.

Degrassi, which received numerous honours this past year, including 5 Geminis and 3 Directors Guild Awards, continues to be recognized for its achievements. It has recently garnered a nomination for Outstanding Drama Series at this years GLAAD Media Awards, which lauded the series for its portrayal of 10th Grader Marcos coming-out.

Degrassi has always strived to present an accurate and inclusive slice of adolescence, which means showing young people dealing with the complicated issues of sexuality and sexual orientation. For an organization like GLAAD to acknowledge that effort is especially rewarding, says Linda Schuyler, president of Epitome Pictures. The series joins fellow nominees Nip/Tuck, Playmakers, Queer As Folk and Six Feet Under. The award will be presented in Los Angeles on March 27th. At the heart of Degrassis success are its dedicated fans. One of the best parts of producing a television show is hearing from fans and thanks to our companion website, Degrassi.tv, we interact with them on a daily basis, says Executive Producer, Stephen Stohn.

Degrassi.tv has been inundated with fan activity, with the over 350,000 registered users posting over 1,800,000 club messages, sending over 1,400,000 dmails, and making nearly 400,000 journal entries. In an average week, Degrassi cast members receive over 1600 fan letters.

Degrassi: The Next Generation is produced by Epitome Pictures Inc. in association with CTV, with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund created by the Government of Canada and the Canadian Cable Industry-Telefilm Canada: Equity Investment Program and CTF: Licence Fee Program, produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit, with the financial participation of the Shaw Childrens Programming Initiative through the Shaw Television Broadcast Fund and the Dr. Geoffrey R. Conway Fund and with the participation of the Independent Production Fund – Mountain Cable Program and RBC Royal Bank.

Degrassi.tv is produced by Epitome Pictures Inc. and Snap Media in association with CTV, with the participation of the Telefilm Canada New Media Fund, the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund and the Canadian Television Fund created by the Government of Canada and the Canadian Cable Industry-CTF: Licence Fee Program. Degrassi: The Next Generation is distributed by Alliance/Atlantis. *for Canadian drama series meeting the full Canadian content requirements (10 out of 10 points) set out by CAVCO and the CRTC.