The most major news first: Lloyd Robertson’s last-ever newscast will be September 1, 2011.  Nothing’s going to top that, so here’s some news from the past two days that I haven’t covered yet.

• The Bell Media benefits package has been announced.  This makes official the renewals of The Listener (third season), The Borgias (second season) and Flashpoint (fifth season.)
• In the same press bumf, the Saving Hope and Stay with Me pilots have gone into production.  The pilots were revealed on December 9, 2010, along with Highland Gardens.
• Paul Gross and Anne Wheeler are attached to The Horses of McBride, “about a father and daughter who inspire a community to save two horses trapped on a snowy B.C. mountainside.”  The TV movie will begin production in early 2012.
• CTV Two will air Sanctuary, Degrassi, The Listener and Flashpoint in 2011-12.  Less encouragingly, The Listener and Flashpoint will air on Saturdays in “best-of” formats.  Degrassi will be aired in a half-hour, Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday at 7:00 PM format, Thursdays confusingly set aside for The Vampire Diaries.  Sanctuary currently reruns on A Channel, which puts the lie to that “new to CTV Two” bullshit.
• HBO Canada will debut The Yard, a six-episode, half-hour comedy from Whizbang Films, on Friday, July 8.  The first two episodes will fill the 9:00 to 10:00 PM hour.
• Channel Zero…is having an upfront on June 8!  Yay?  Returning Canadian shows on CHCH and Métro14 include Sportsline and Square-Off.

I like CHCH’s Sportsline.  Mark Hebscher and Clint “Bubba” O’Neil have a chemistry that only comes from working in the same company for several years.  Whenever a guest host fills in for either Hebscher or O’Neil, the quality drops.  At the same time, are this and what used to be Live at 5:30 the token Canadian shows for CHCH and/or Métro14?  That’s a lot of Hebsy to take in a day.

As an aside, why has Ed the Sock’s This Movie Sucks!‘ “new season” been delayed so many times?  I know CHCH is a low-budget station, but the news side is much more organized than the entertainment side.  Sportsline twice a day?  Constant reruns of Everybody Hates Chris?  I guess CHCH picked some cult hits in Supernatural and Chuck, but on the flip side, there’s this.