CBC-TV's comedy stable of Royal Canadian Air Farce, Made In Canada and This Hour Has 22 Minutes leads the list with 18 nominations for the 4th annual Canadian Comedy Awards. In the film category, leading contenders include Paul Gross's Men With Brooms and Soo Lyu's Rub & Tug.
The awards announced on Thursday will be presented in London, Ont., this year as part of a new Sept 10-14 comedy festival.
"This year we're bouncing back stronger than it's ever been," says actor/comic Tim Progosh of Higher Ground Productions, one of the founders of the awards. "We have lots of sponsors, the Comedy Network has come in to sponsor again." Last year The Comedy Network stopped televising the awards.
In the television categories, nominees include Don Ferguson and Luba Goy of Air Farce, Dan Lett, Peter Keleghan and Leah Pinsent for Made In Canada and from CTV's Comedy Network, Gavin Crawford and Marypat Farrell for The Gavin Crawford Show as well as Dan Redican for Puppets Who Kill.
In the live comedy categories, 19 nominees have connections to Toronto's Second City review, including Mump and Smoot and the sketch troupe The Young and the Useless.
Previous winners include Ron James, Sean Majumder, Rick Mercer, Colin Mochrie and Sarah Polley.