For fans of Michael Shanks (Stargate‘s “Daniel Jackson”) who wish they could see him on television more often, Christmas just came early.
An industry source has confirmed with GateWorld exclusively that Shanks’ latest series, Saving Hope, will be returning to television screens in the United States very soon. The series stars Shanks as “Doctor Charles Harris” and actress Erica Durance (“Krista James” in the Stargate SG-1 Season Eight episode “Affinity”, Smallville‘s “Lois Lane”) as “Doctor Alex Reid”, an engaged couple working at the same medical facility, Hope Zion Hospital. Despite being a medical drama, the series has supernatural overtones as Shanks’ character falls into a coma in the pilot, yet is able to roam the hospital in spirit form watching and interacting in his own way while “Reid” attempts to save his life along with the other patients within the hospital. The series premise changes subtly in Season Two while still maintaining a quasi-genre tone.
The Canadian series premiered in 2012 with a 13-episode first season shown jointly on CTV in Canada and on NBC in the United States. Hope was never a breakout hit for NBC, but did perform steadily and kept a majority of its premiere audience throughout its initial American run. Inexplicably, the network opted not to secure broadcast rights for the series’ sophomore year and stunted the initial run for U.S. audiences by moving the final two episodes of Season One to online availability only. Since that time, an expanded 18-episode Season Two has been produced and aired in Canada, and Season Three of the series (also 18 episodes) is set to premiere next month.
The new deal that brings Saving Hope back to American television is with a cable channel, and will include broadcast rights not just to the series’ first two years but also first-run episodes from Season Three. There is no word yet as to which cable channel the series will be calling its new U.S. home. However, with Season Three set to premiere in Canada on September 22, we expect an official announcement from said channel to be forthcoming extremely soon.
Keep your browser locked to GateWorld for more updates. As more concrete info surfaces, we will update this article with more specific information!
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I am excited that this series is returning; saw the last two episodes on the DVD of the first season. I keep checking for more seasons to be released on DVD, but nothing so far. Michael Shanks and Erica Durance are play off each other well.
So happy that Michael Shanks is returning to U.S. TV sets! Waiting with bated breath to learn whether they'll start with S3 this September, delay the broadcast like with Continuum or bring us S1 first. I'll take a marathon or two to bring us up to speed!
This is a great show. excited that it's coming back state-side.
Great news! I love this show and have been watching via my phone since NBC dropped it. Excited it will be coming back to US TV
I was one of those crazy girls that started screaming at the Stargate Convention last weekend over this announcement. I'm figuring Lifetime, Hallmark, We TV, or Oxygen when "cable channel" comes to mind.
Inb4 it's Syfy. And they'll shamelessly call it their "original series".
It seems to be heavily female oriented, so my guess is that it will end up on The Hallmark Channel. My wife would be in heaven if they paired this show with Cedar Cove!
Great news. Now I don't have to use bit torrent to get it any more.
DancerChick, I sure hope it's not one of those lame channels.
I went to Wizard World in Chicago this past weekend and got to meet Erica Durance! First off she's super nice and really soft spoken but I asked her about Saving Hope and she said Ion is the channel that picked it up. You heard it hear first folks straight from Dr. Alex Reid herself. She didn't say when and I forgot to ask mainly because I was looking and talking to Lois Lane! She's beautiful... Anyways ION SAVING HOPE IS COMING TO ION.
It's been announced here that ION now has the US broadcast rights.
http://deadline.com/2014/09/saving-hope-picked-up-ion-827585/