Samantha Bee will play Canada’s unorthodox ambassador to Bulgaria in a comedy for pubcaster the CBC.

The Ambassador was announced this morning at CBC’s upfront, along with new series from the exec producer of Cardinal and Snowpiercer, and the creators of Norsemen and producers of Lilyhammer and Letterkenny, and a drama based on hockey star P.K. Subban.

Coming from Son of a Critch showrunner Tim McAuliffe, half-hour workplace comedy The Ambassador will star former Full Frontal with Samantha Bee presenter and Daily Show correspondent Bee as Olivia Winters, a former actor turned diplomat at the Canadian embassy in Bulgaria. Along with her childhood best friend Andrea Taylor (Allana Harkin), a sharp, policy-driven diplomat, Olivia has to rely on instinct, chaotic brilliance and uniquely Canadian workarounds to punch above their weight.

Amaze Film & Television is making the ten-part series, with McAuliffe exec producing alongside Teza Lawrence and Michael Souther.

Another new comedy is The Posse, an eight-parter from New Metric Media and Norway’s Rubicon TV. The Canadian-Norwegian co-production for CBC and NRK follows a spoiled Norwegian factory heir from the 1800s, who forces a group of reluctant underlings to the American Wild West to gather material for his novel. They accidentally land themselves in serious trouble on the run from the law and are forced to rely on a charismatic but untrustworthy Canadian guide as fight their way across the wilderness toward Vancouver, and what they hope will be a way back home to safety.

Norsemen and Captain Fall creators Jon Iver Helgaker and Jonas Torgerson are the creators, directors and exec producers. Mark Montefiore is exec producer for Letterkenny maker New Metric, with Lana Maclin and Max Wolfond producing. Rubicon’s Ivar Køhn is exec producing, with Gudny Hummelvoll producing, and Sarah Babineau and former Comedy Central chief Kent Alterman also exec produce through Good Walk Entertainment. New Metric has worldwide distribution rights with Rubicon handling Scandinavia.

Cardinal showrunner Aubrey Nealon is behind The Service, an eight-part comedy from Sphere Media set in the world of Canadian espionage. It follows idealist Drew and realist Mia, who work at the Toronto office of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and fail to realize they are falling in love.

The comedies will sit alongside Committed, the co-production with BBC Northern Ireland we first told you about last month.

New dramas

On the drama front, Cold Country will be a six-part limited series from Sphere. The co-pro with APTN comes from creators and showrunners Shane Belcourt and Tasha Hubbard, who also direct alongside Danis Goulet. Sarah Podemski, Chaske Spencer and Michael Greyeyes will star.

Junior, from Conquering Lion Pictures, Heavy Lifting Productions and Lionsgate Canada, is an eight-parter inspired by former ice hockey star P.K. Subban’s experience. The coming-of-age drama will follow an electrifying, fiercely confident Black teenager who finds the cutthroat business of junior hockey threatens to break him as his star rises.

Kyle Hart is the creator and exec produces alongside include Subban, Conquering Lion’s Damon D’Oliveria and Clement Virgo, Heavy Lifting’s Michael Rotenberg and Trevor Rotenberg, and Lionsgate’s Jocelyn Hamilton and Kerry Appleyard. Lionsgate Television has international distribution.

Sphere is also making Blessed Sacrament alongside Debut Content. The ten-part series follows the Blessing sisters – surgeon Peg, nurse Brie (Kathleen Robertson) and administrator Amelia, as they save lives at a hospital under the watchful eye of their mother, CEO Margaret. Robertson (Boss) is the creator, showrunner, exec producer and star, with Chris Cowles the exec producer.

On the docs front come the likes of Muse Entertainment’s Doula: A True Crime; Omnifilm Entertainment’s senior hockey league access doc Barnburners; Nelson B.C. culinary doc series Burger Month from Cream Productions; Blink49 Studios’ women’s hockey doc Power Play; Visitor Media’s Snow King: From Olympian to Narco, a profile of former Olympic snowboarder turned FBI Most Wanted fugitive Ryan Wedding; and NASCAR true crime series Running Smoke from Muse in association with Campside Media.

Acquired series include Richard E. Grant travelog A Very Modern Odyssey and Nick Davis doc You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution. They join the previously-acquired Lord of the Flies, a deal we told you about in February.