I will be attending the 2011 Gemini Awards broadcast gala in Toronto tomorrow.  I will do at least one special article on the 2011 Gemini Awards after September 8, much as I was active during Upfront Week earlier this year.

I will post some updates at my Twitter and/or Google+ accounts.  I likely won’t do a liveblog of the awards ceremony, given that I will actually be there.  My setup for the awards ceremony will be spartan, given that it’s the Geminis and I’m not being paid to cover them, but I will show my presence.

Expect some content on URBMN proper within this week.  Right now, I need some content.  I’m this close to telling inconsequential poems about cat penises, or whatever the prevailing meme is today.

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.

Long day for me.  Let’s get right to what you love: highlights.

It’s upfront week.  The major Canadian media companies want to reveal their new wares, mostly American, to the overfed masses.  To that end, most of this article is about The Comedy Network, and unrelated to the fall 2011-12 season.  CTV’s unloading its big guns Thursday, but at least one major news story has already been offed.

You saw CTV’s summer schedule.  Now here’s Global’s.  Second verse, same as the first.

• Global will debut Combat Hospital The Hot Zone Combat Hospital Tuesday, June 21 at 10:00 PM ET/PT, in simulcast with ABC.
• Rookie Blue‘s second season will begin Thursday, June 23, at 10:00 PM ET/PT.  Rookie Blue is also in simulcast with ABC.
• The Kennedys will make its Global debut Monday, July 4, at 8:00 PM ET/PT, in the form of eight one-hour episodes.
• Canada Sings begins Wednesday, August 10, at 9:00 PM ET/PT.
• NBC Universal, Entertainment One and Global will develop a television adaptation of John Grisham’s The Firm for midseason 2012.  The show is executive produced by Grisham and Lukas Reiter.

This is three-day-old news by now, but I haven’t seen much commentary on this story.  The Adventures of Tintin, a co-production between Canada’s Nelvana and France’s Ellipsanime, will see its 39 episodes released on DVD through Shout! Factory.  This “multi-year agreement” will exploit the upcoming 2011 release of The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson/Weta Digital motion-capture film.

This news is notable for the American company attached to the Adventures of Tintin DVD releases.  Shout! Factory has released Canadian content before, most notably SCTV, ReBoot and Transformers: Beast Wars.

It’s almost time for summer season, the period in television where reruns abound, and Canadian filler peeks its weird little head.  Among the highlights relevant to CTV’s CanCon:

• Flashpoint returns for a fourth season on Friday, June 17, at 8:00 PM ET.  CTV claims a date-and-time simulcast with CBS.  ”Encore” episodes currently air Fridays at 9:00 PM ET.
• Comedy Now! will begin its thirteenth season Saturday, June 4, at 10:00 PM ET.  No further information has been given; I am presently looking into that.
• Dan for Mayor‘s second season premieres Sunday, June 5 at 7:30 PM ET.
• Hiccups‘ second season will have its first three episodes air Monday at 8:00 PM ET, starting May 30.  The show will then move to Sundays at 8:30 PM ET, starting June 19.
• The Borgias will make its CTV broadcast debut Tuesday, June 21, at 10:00 PM ET.
• So You Think You Can Dance Canada‘s fourth season returns Monday, June 20 at 8:00 PM ET.  The results shows begin Tuesday at 8:00 PM ET, starting July 5.

Yeah, I know.  My neglect of URBMN means these Alliance Home Entertainment titles, if not already out, are coming very soon.  Hey, a few of you are actually purchasing these titles through my links, so I must be doing something right…that or Americans are cross-border shopping.

The titles for April to June 2011, plus a selection for August: