Acorn TV Sets February Debut for 'Murdoch Mysteries' Season 18

We are a full quarter of the way into the 21st century. However, not everyone is quick to embrace the future, not even in television, even though most would assume those who work with filming tech would be the first to adopt any new technology bandwagon. Murdoch Mysteries is a perfect example. Most shows have spent the last decade reducing episode counts, but not Murdoch, which has increased its installments in the past few years. Most series are abandoning linear for streaming or releasing shows on streaming and then on broadcast, but not Murdoch, which has held firm on giving the CBC show a four-month exclusivity window, only to finally abandon that for the first time this season... to air simultaneously on Ovation, a zombie cable network with only a tiny, little-watched website-based streaming platform (which is, nevertheless, free).

When the CBC revealed that Murdoch Mysteries, one of the most popular period mystery police procedurals from the mid-aughts, despite never officially airing on PBS, would go "day-and-date" with Ovation starting with Season 18, allowing fans to watch the series legally in American before February of the following year for the first time, we checked with Acorn TV (which traditionally has started streaming Murdoch Mysteries on a weekly schedule two weeks after it started on Ovation) but heard nothing back.

That's apparently because it was not included in this deal. Acorn TV is still stuck in the past, waiting a full four months (120 days!) before it can stream the first episode. While Ovation will air and stream Episode 12 of 22 for the first weekend of February 2025, Acorn TV will be premiering Season 18, Episode 1.

Here's the Season 18 synopsis for those who have not been watching the series for free on Ovation's website since October 2024:

Murdoch Mysteries is set in Toronto in the early 1900s, during the age of invention, where Detective William Murdoch enlists innovative forensic techniques to solve some of the city’s most perplexing murders. Season 18 is full of 'Murdochian' delights: a murder at a Charles Dickens convention; Murdoch acting as a bodyguard for a silent film star and thrown into a cinematic adventure himself; foiling a theft of the world's largest ruby; proving the veracity of a "Missing Link" skull found in Milton, Ontario; and a holiday episode celebrating the "misfits" and singletons. Episodes that root mysteries in the social issues of the time are also explored: a worker's strike at a factory; an early instance of low-income housing; competing public hydro projects; and immigrants trying to purchase land in the 'paradise' of the wilds of Canada. Finally, the milestone 300th episode will feature Detective Murdoch visiting the UK to see his wife, Dr. Julia Ogden, as they celebrate their wedding anniversary. 

Yannick Bisson returns once more as the titular detective, William Murdoch. He'll lead an ensemble that includes longtime regulars Thomas Craig as Inspector Thomas Brackenreid,  Jonny Harris as Constable George Crabtree, and Hélène Joy as Dr. Julia Ogden, plus the series' first new main character to join the show since Georgina Reilly's Dr. Emily Grace exited the series after Season 9, Paul Hyung-Sun Lee as Inspector Albert Choi. Other returnees from the previous seasons include Daniel Maslany as Detective Watts and Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgens, Arwen Humphreys as Margaret Brackenreid, Clare McConnell as Crown Attorney Effie Newsome-Crabtree, and Shanice Banton as Chief Coroner Violet Hart. 

Season 18's guest star roster includes Siobhan Murphy (The Sisterhood) reprising her role as Ruth Newsome, Peter Keleghan (Workin' Moms) back again as government spy Terrence Meyers, and Daniel Kash (Orphan Black) in his third standalone role in the series. New faces landing a guest star turn on the long-running series include Rebecca Liddiard (Frankie Drake Mysteries), and Lainey Lui, the founder of Lainey Gossip. Season 18 will also feature musical guests indie-popstar Shawna Beesley (known as Adaline) and Idol Season 20 contestant Nicolina Bozzo.

Murdoch Mysteries Season 18 premieres on Acorn TV beginning Monday, February 10, 2025, and will stream weekly without breaks, through the end of July.