CBC and CanWest are banking that high drama and sitcoms will help them catch up to first-place CTV in the coming season, and have revealed fall schedules heavy on scripted laughs, sci-fi and, in the case of the Ceeb, a parade of Canadiana specials and MOWs.

All three nets unveiled - to varying degrees - their plans for 2005/06 earlier this month, starting with CBC's very modest press conference on June 2, where newly installed boss Richard Stursberg gave an oddly familiar talk about audiences.

"There are big changes coming at CBC TV," he said, pointing to the new, drama-heavy schedule. "It is absolutely important for us to build both relevance and revenue, and that means building audiences."

Which sounds something like the controversial plan he oversaw at his last job, as head of Telefilm Canada, to improve the box office of English-Canadian movies. Stursberg says he wants to double the Canadian content on CBC over the next three years, adding more movies, minis, dramas and comedies to primetime.

"It's no secret I'm a very big believer in audiences," he told Playback. "And I think that making things that entertain Canadians is absolutely fundamental to everything we do."

It is also a reversal of the party line often heard from CBC and programming czar Slawko Klymkiw - that ratings take a backseat to serving as a public broadcaster. Klymkiw has since changed his tune, remarking during a walk-through of the coming season that "a public broadcaster is legitimated by its use."

To that end, the Ceeb will make four major changes in the coming season: putting more "high impact" drama in primetime, reworking its news, boosting its kids and sports programming, and increasing the net's regional presence in certain markets.

The half-local, half-national Canada Now format will be dropped in St John's, Edmonton and Montreal, replaced with hour-long local news. Last year's reality experiment/hockey replacement Making the Cut has been benched and performing arts mainstay Opening Night is down to half a season. The sitcom Ciao Bella, part of last season's attempt to build the early primetime slots, is also gone.

Sunday and Monday nights are now dedicated to a parade of drama specials, such as the long-awaited Trudeau prequel from Big Motion Pictures and the Shania Twain MOW by Barna-Alper Productions. Also due this year are Waking Up Wally: The Walter Gretzky Story, the six-hour mini about René Lévesque and the four-hour war drama Il Duce Canadese, a leftover from 2004. CBC says it will release a more detailed schedule in September.

"Great shows effectively scheduled are the key to gaining larger audiences for Canadian programming. That's our job," says Stursberg.

But media buyer Kim Dougherty of OMD Canada isn't convinced it will work. "I think their odds are about the same as they are every year," she says. "I don't think anything dramatic is going to change when you look at the other schedules the networks have presented. I don't think it's possible for them to grab any more ratings."