http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/ion-renews-flashpoint-for-fifth-season/
ION Renews ‘Flashpoint’ For Fifth Season
By NELLIE ANDREEVA
EXCLUSIVE: I hear that ION Television has renewed Canadian-produced
cop drama Flashpoint for a fifth season. The broadcast network is
picking up all 13 episodes of the series’ fifth season, set to begin
production in February 2012. Flashpoint, Canada’s most-watched drama
series, has already been renewed north of the border by CTV with a
13-episode fifth season order. Flashpoint was the first of the recent
wave of Canadian scripted series to launch successfully in the U.S.
when it premiered on CBS in 2008. Earlier this year, it became the
first of the Canadian imports to land a U.S. syndication deal in a
complex arrangement with CBS and ION. Under the deal, ION acquired all
episodes from Seasons 1-4 that had aired in the U.S. on CBS along
with 11 first-run (in the U.S.) Season 4 episodes. Since its ION debut
in October, Flashpoint has been growing in the ratings. In its most
recent airing on Dec. 27, the drama posted series highs on the network
in total viewers (2.1 million) and several demos, including adults
25-54 (869,000).
ION has been actively buying off-network rights to drama procedurals,
most recently acquiring TNT’s Leverage. It also has aired several
Canadian drama series, including Durham County, The Border and The
Guard, which all made their U.S. premieres on ION. Flashpoint, about
the lives of a group of police in the Strategic Response Unit, was
created by Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern. It stars Hugh Dillon,
Enrico Colantoni, Amy Jo Johnson, David Paetkau, Sergio Di Zio and Clé
Bennett, with Anne Marie La Traverse and Bill Mustos serving as
executive producers.