'Murdoch Mysteries' Season 18 To Simultaneously Arrive on the CBC & Ovation

It was only a few weeks ago that we noted Murdoch Mysteries was finally getting with the 2020s, adding its first full-time lead to the roster in nearly a decade, the first since Georgina Reilly's Dr. Emily Grace exited the series after Season 9, and the first leading non-white cast member.... ever. However, the addition of fan-favorite Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Kim's Convenience) was the first in the CBC's moves to modernize the nearly 20-year-old series, which is still going strong. After refusing to acknowledge that streaming has rendered 90- and 120-day exclusivity windows much less effective, especially when we're talking about keeping it from being streamed in a country with which it shares a 3000-mile-long border, the CBC is finally allowing Murdoch Mysteries to premiere simultaneously in the U.S. and Canada starting in October 2024.

Since the CBC first teamed up with cable niche network Ovation to air Murdoch Mysteries in the States in the late aughts, the small-time channel has been the first to air and stream the series in the U.S. (It speaks volumes that at the time, Ovation rechristened the series The Artful Detective, assuming that viewers would never know the show's Canadian name.) However, it's always had to wait until late January or early February to air weekly episodes, an exemplary system that worked when most people watched TV via linear cable.

When the CBC made a deal with Acorn TV to second-run the show on streaming only, it had to wait another 30 days after Ovation's premiere to start the season, again, one a week. This means the previous season finished in the U.S. less than two months before the new one debuted up north.