"It's a desperate situation," said [Wendy Crewson] as more than 150 supporters of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists marched in front of the theatre, chanting, "CanWest Global, don't you care?/Put more CanCon on the air."

"Where is the CRTC in all this? It's time for them to show some (guts)," said Crewson, currently a cast member on the made-for-cable drama ReGenesis. "The licence renewals (for Canadian networks) are coming up next year; the CRTC has to show that it has the teeth to do something about this. If the renewal is in jeopardy, then maybe we'll see some action."

The fall-launch lineup will include Journeyman, an NBC drama about a newspaper reporter who develops the ability to travel back and forth in time, Cane, a [Jimmy Smits]-led CBS drama about a powerful south-Florida sugar-cane dynasty, Back to You, a TV-newsroom sitcom from Fox starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, Life, an NBC cop drama about a detective returning to the force after serving time for a crime he didn't commit, and 'Da Kink In My Hair, a Canadian-made comedy based on the stage musical of the same name.