EXCLUSIVE: Schitt’s Creek star Emily Hampshire and Frasier‘s Jess Salgueiro are among the lead cast of Crave‘s softball comedy series Slo Pitch, we’ve learned.
Karen Knox, Gwenlyn Cumyn, Emma Hunter, Chelsea Muirhead, Lane Webber, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah and Amanda Cordner also star, with women’s softball legend Ayami Sato making a guest appearance. Other guests include Varun Saranga, Laura De Carteret, Don MacLean Jr., comedians Carolyn Taylor, Chris Locke and Chris Sandiford, and Nadine Bhabha, who is also a writer on the series.
The series is centered around a queer, underdog, slo pitch softball team and their dedicated and determined coach, played by Salguiero, who starred in Paramount+’s Frasier reboot. We’ve got a first-look image above.
The 10-episode show, for Bell Media’s Canadian network CTV and streamer Crave, comes from Murdoch Mysteries maker Shaftesbury in association with Knox, Cumyn and Michael Schram’s Boss & Co and Elliot Page‘s Pageboy Productions. It’s based on a web series of the same name that played on OutTV and in the U.S. on IFC.
J Stevens, Knox and Cumyn are the creators of the Crave show, with Katie Ford and Jane Cooper Ford developing it for TV. The series is the first to come out of Bell’s co-development with Pageboy, and was unveiled earlier this year at an upfront in Canada.
More details on the plot have also been unveiled today. Per the synopsis, “Welcome to the world of beer league sports, where Joanne Pico (Salgueiro) is returning to coach six-time league losers, The Public Lass Brovaries. Coach Joanne is dead set on turning things around this season despite having just been brutally dumped by her girlfriend and co-founder of the team. Throughout the summer, Joanne leads her lovable, chaotic crew through a season of strikeouts, petty rivalries, conservative-politician sponsors, and sexy carwash fundraisers gone wrong. With her ex now playing on a rival team, Joanne’s got a lot to prove this season. It’s time to win the breakup, get the gang back together, and maybe even find new love over beers in the dugout.”
The series will be available to both English- and French-language viewers, with Shaftesbury handling international distribution.
Slo Pitch was made with participation of the Bell Media Fund and Ontario Creates. Hampshire, known for playing Stevie Budd in CBC comedy Schitt’s Creek, is an executive producer alongside Christina Jennings, Scott Garvie and Paige Haight for Shaftesbury. Knox and Cumyn are executive producers, writers and stars, while Ford, Cooper Ford and Schram are executive producers. Stevens is executive producer and director.
For Bell Media, Alexis McLaren is Production Executive; Sarah Fowlie is Head of Production, Original Programming; Rachel Goldstein-Couto is Head of Development, Original Programming; Carlyn Klebuc is General Manager, Original Programming; and Justin Stockman is Vice President, Content Development & Programming.
Guest star Sato recently made history by becoming the first woman to play in a Canadian men’s professional baseball league, when she turned out for the Toronto Maple Leafs in an Intercounty Baseball League game.
