Throng

After six seasons of laughter, friendship – and international acclaim – LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE comes to an end Monday, April 2 at 8:30 p.m. (9 NT) on CBC Television.

In the final episode, Amaar prepares for the grand opening of the town of Mercy’s new Mosque, while trying to get Baber to end his boycott.  

Charles returns to Mercy with a plan to win Ann. Sarah reaffirms her Muslim faith. Are new beginnings on the horizon? What is in store for the people and the town of Mercy? 

LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE is the internationally acclaimed comedy about Muslims and Christians attempting to live in harmony with one another in the small town of Mercy, Saskatchewan.

The series premiered in January 2007 with record breaking audience numbers with a first season average of 1,253,000 viewers, and has since been seen in over 90 countries.  

After debuting to record high audiences this winter season, CBC Television’s winter lineup wraps up next week with several finale episodes.

On Monday, it is the season finale of CBC-TV’s funny and fresh new comedy MR. D. The show attracted 1.23 million viewers for its season premiere, making MR. D the most-watched show on a Canadian network in the timeslot.

DRAGONS’ DEN, Canada’s top-rated entertainment program, reached 2 in 5 Canadians over the course of this season. Its finale airs on Wednesday, followed by REPUBLIC OF DOYLE, which had its best season yet, with more than 1.3 million viewers for the season premiere.

Edge-of-your-seat drama and adventure set in the clear, cold skies and stunning natural beauty of Canada’s new North; one of Hollywood’s greatest stars kicks off the new season of the adventures of Canada’s sexiest sleuth; and the crusty cut-throat of Canadian business literally goes to jail for his search to find the country’s next great new entrepreneurs.

These are just a few of the highlights in store for CBC Television’s 2012 Winter Season.

A Spanish network has acquired the rights to Canadian sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie.

Sony Pictures Entertainment Network’s AXN channel has bought the series, which follows a fish-out-of water family of Canadian Muslims in Saskatchewan.

The Spanish sale is the 82nd international sale of the sitcom, following recent acquisitions in Italy and Slovenia.

CBC Television today confirmed a number of returning shows for the 2011-12 season. Among the returning fan favourites are BATTLE OF THE BLADES and DRAGONS’ DEN, which both regularly drew more than 1.5 million viewers this season, the Down East detective hit REPUBLIC OF DOYLE, Season 9 of THE RICK MERCER REPORT and Season 51 of THE NATURE OF THINGS WITH DAVID SUZUKI.

B.C. fan will get the chance to meet a swag of Canadian TV personalities when they come out to Burnaby in support of LiveRightNow.ca.

Well-known personalities including George Stroumboulopoulos, Heartland’s Graham Wardle and Dragons’ Den’s Brett Wilson will be on hand to entertain the crowd at Burnaby’s Metropolis at Metrotown with a range of activities planned.

The event takes place on Saturday January 29 at the shopping centre, beginning at 11am and running through to 5pm.

Others scheduled to appear include cast members of the likes of 18 to Life, Little Mosque on the Prairie, InSecurity, Steven and Chris, Marketplace, Republic of Doyle, CBc News Vancouver and CBC News Network.

Kirstine Stewart, Interim Executive Vice-President, English Services, CBC Television, today previewed the network’s Winter 2011 schedule, including the launch of new spy comedy INSECURITY, the return of the hit Down East detective series REPUBLIC OF DOYLE, the premiere of the groundbreaking new series VILLAGE ON A DIET and the 50th anniversary of THE NATURE OF THINGS.

New programming includes INSECURITY, an action-comedy following the exploits of agents at a fictional spy agency who have unorthodox and sometimes hilarious methods, but somehow manage to keep Canada safe—often unwittingly; VILLAGE ON A DIET, which follows the residents of Taylor, B.C., as they try to lose a ton of collective weight in three months, and PILLARS OF THE EARTH, a sweeping epic of good and evil set in the 12th century and starring Gordon Pinsent and Donald Sutherland.

This year, there’s a fresh arrival in Mercy. A new man of the cloth is about to take over Mercy Anglican and he’s not interested in treating Mercy’s resident Iman as an equal. The friendly relationship between the Muslims and the Christians will be put to the test as CBC Television’s internationally-acclaimed comedy series LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE returns for its fourth season on Monday, September 28 at 8:30 p.m. It’s the same funny and heart-warming show it has always been …with a little more edge.

Reverend William Thorne (Brandon Firla, Billable Hours) is an ambitious and manipulative minister from the big city who is surprised to find a bunch of Muslims as tenants in his church. Not the ecumenical type, Thorne prefers a church without an Imam and mosque in it. Conflict brewing, Imam Amaar (Zaib Shaikh) literally and figuratively dukes it out with the new Reverend and faces the greatest test of all – himself.

Canadian Prime Time is heating up tonight as CTV and CBC go head to head with Canadian content.

While America's Next Top Model, Bones and The Secret Life of an American Teenager compete for viewers the real race is between the new seasons of Little Mosque on the Prairie and Sophie which return to CBC tonight and the much anticipated Top 100 round of So You Think You Can Dance Canada on CTV.

Which will you be watching?

When I hear that a new show is much anticipated in the media, it is too often because it is something new along the same old lines. Is everyone not tired of CSI from every country in the U.S.? Now I could understand if they made a CSI Vancouver or force the pansy Survivors to suffer through The Coldness of Baffin Island, but am I really the only one who gets sick and tired of the same old same old from American based TV??

I must admit that I am a huge fan of the CBC already, but really, its about time we get to watch a show that is unique and different - Little Mosque on the Praire instantly attracted my attention because I crave new TV!! I watched the first episode and thought it was hilarious - not only does it remind me of my Muslim friends from University in Ottawa, but it also reminds me of the hilarious adventures that some of my multicultural friends experienced at my high school and in the small businesses of Mount Forest, the ultimate in small town Ontario.

Comedy on TV can be so formulaic. It is up to our Canadian humourists to waft some perfume below the noses of the nation - we have been laughing at ourselves for decades (Rick Mercer, Royal Canadian Air Farce, the Frantics, Bob and Doug MacKenzie) and even exporting our comedy to the US (Mike Myers, Jim Carrey) and soon enough everybody will realize that our Canadian comedy is far more intelligent and witty than anything else produced in the world.

CBC
Monday 9:00 PM and Wednesday 8:00 PM, from January 15

LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE is a new comedy from CBC Television about a small Muslim community in the prairie town of Mercy, many of whose residents are wary of their new, more “exotic” neighbours. The series takes an unabashedly funny look at the congregation of a rural mosque and their attempt to live in harmony with the often skeptical, even down right suspicious, residents of their little prairie town. The sitcom reveals that, although different, we are all surprisingly similar when it comes to family, love, the generation gap and our attempts to balance our secular and religious lives.

LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE premieres on Tuesday, January 9 at 8:30 p.m. on CBC Television following The Rick Mercer Report. An encore presentation will air on Wednesday, January 10 at 8 p.m. Beginning Monday, January 15, the much anticipated series moves to its regular Monday night timeslot at 9 p.m. and Wednesdays at 8 p.m.