November 26, 2002 (2002-11-26) – March 26, 2005 (2005-03-26)
The Eleventh Hour is a Canadian television drama series which aired weekly on CTV from 2002 to 2005.
The show revolves around the reporters and producers at a fictional television news magazine series, The Eleventh Hour. Unhappy with the newsmagazine's shrinking audience, the network has brought in a new executive producer, Kennedy Marsh, to reorient the show in a more ratings-driven tabloid journalism direction.
The tension between the ratings imperative and the more traditional journalistic ethics of the show's senior staff is the primary conflict that drives the show, but storylines also include the team's efforts to get the stories that will make it to air each week.
The Eleventh Hour was produced by Alliance Atlantis, Canada's largest film and television production house. It aired in the U.S. on Sleuth, under the title Bury the Lead, to distinguish it from a CBS series with a similar name.
Ratings
Although the show started off poorly in the Canadian television ratings, attracting an average of just 400,000 viewers each week, its audience during the start of its 2004 season was sufficiently high that CTV ordered a third season. However, ratings did not improve further. The third season, already ordered, aired irregularly on Saturday nights with very little promotion, and proved to be its last. The final season also received a Best Dramatic SeriesGemini Award despite the cancellation.
The Eleventh Hour was the latest in a lengthy line of drama series at CTV which had high-profile launches but were quickly marginalized to little-watched weekend timeslots and ultimately cancelled. However, it outlasted several other recent CTV dramas, including Power Play, The City, and The Associates, which each lasted two seasons.
The show was nominated for 14 Gemini Awards in 2003, and won for Best Dramatic Series, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Seymour) and Best Supporting Actor (MacNeill).
