The Fifth Estate (TV program)

The Fifth Estate is an English-language Canadian newsmagazine television program. It airs on the national CBC Television network as well as on CBC News Network. The name is a reference to the term "Fourth Estate", and was chosen to highlight the program's determination to go beyond everyday news into original journalism. The program has been on the air since September 15, 1975,[1] and its primary focus is on investigative journalism. It has engaged in co-productions with the BBC, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and often with the PBS program Frontline.

The Fifth Estate
StarringGillian Findlay
Bob McKeown
Mark Kelley
Habiba Nosheen
Country of originCanada
No. of seasons44
Production
Executive producer(s)Jim Williamson
Running time60 minutes
DistributorCBC Television
Release
Original networkCBC Television
Original releaseSeptember 15, 1975 –
present

Journalists

Journalists associated with the show, past and present, include:

Episodes

News reports aired on The Fifth Estate have included investigations into and reports about:

Season 34 (2008–09)

The 2008–09 Television season was the 34th season of The Fifth Estate.

Episode Title Original air date
10 Someone Got Away With Murder[4] January 21, 2009

Season 36 (2010–11)

The 2010–11 Television season was the 36th season[5] of The Fifth Estate.

Episode Title Original air date
1 Enemies of the State October 15, 2010
2 The Confession October 22, 2010
3 The Fall and Rise of Theo Fleury October 29, 2010
4 The Life and Death of Abdinasir Dirie November 5, 2010
5 Behind the Wall November 12, 2010
6 The Girl in the Suitcase November 19, 2010
7 The Legacy of Brendan Burke November 26, 2010
8 Presumed Dead December 3, 2010
9 After the Earth Shook January 7, 2011
10 Justice for Nadia January 14, 2011
11 Death of the Don January 28, 2011
12 WikiRebels February 4, 2011
13 Death at the Olympics February 11, 2011
14 The Devil You Know February 18, 2011
15 You Should Have Stayed At Home February 25, 2011
16 Missing March 11, 2011
17 Getting Off Easy March 18, 2011
18 My Friend the Bank Robber March 25, 2011
19 A Question of Innocence April 1, 2011

Season 37 (2011–12)

The 2011–12 Television season was the 37th season[6] of The Fifth Estate.

Episode Title Original air date CBC viewers
1 Truth and Lies: The Last Days of Osama bin Laden September 9, 2011 599,000
2 Swissair 111: The Untold Story September 16, 2011 775,000
3 Gatti-vs-Gatti September 23, 2011 436,000
4 Mayday September 30, 2011 482,000
5 Colonel Gadhafi: Palace of Secrets October 7, 2011 577,000
6 True Confession October 14, 2011 504,000
7 Scout's Honour October 21, 2011 567,000
8 'Til Death Do Us Part October 28, 2011 482,000
9 Stories from the River’s Edge November 4, 2011 509,000
10 Murder, he wrote November 18, 2011 535,000
11 A Cold Case November 25, 2011 612,000
12 Holiday Hell December 2, 2011 722,000
13 Behind the Line December 9, 2011 568,000
14 Escape From Justice January 6, 2012 853,000
15 Diagnosis Murder January 13, 2012 646,000
16 The Lies People Tell January 20, 2012 752,000
17 Who’s Killing the Rizzutos? January 27, 2012 622,000
18 The Wreck of the Costa Concordia February 3, 2012 1,317,000
19 The House of Shafia February 10, 2012 470,000
20 The Lost Boys February 17, 2012 565,000
21 Fearless February 24, 2012 298,000
22 Fast Break March 2, 2012 203,000
23 Time Bomb March 9, 2012 895,000
24 Lost on the Ice March 23, 2012 300,400
25 Kidnapped April 6, 2012 1,200,000

Season 38 (2012–13)

The 2012–13 Television season was the 38th season[7] of The Fifth Estate.

Episode Title Original air date
1 Into the Death Zone (Death of Canadian Shriya Shah-Klorfine on Mt. Everest) September 12, 2012
2 Kingston Pen: Secrets and Lies September 21, 2012
3 Runaway Fighter (F-35 fighter jet purchase) September 28, 2012
4 The Widow's Web (So-called "black widow" Melissa Ann Shepard) October 5, 2012
5 The Life and Death of Gloria Taylor (First Canadian to have the right to ask for a doctor's assistance in dying) October 12, 2012
6 Whistleblowers: Moment of Truth (What happened to well-known Canadian whistleblowers?) October 19, 2012
7 Lost in the Struggle: The Next Chapter (Return to Jane and Finch) October 26, 2012
8 Lucky 7 (Stolen lottery win is recovered) November 2, 2012
9 The Elephant in the Room (Retiring zoo elephants) November 9, 2012
10 Left for Dead (Struggle for survival in icy waters near Baffin Island) November 16, 2012
11 Lance Armstrong: Master of Spin November 23, 2012
12 Hunting Magnotta (Could the gruesome crimes of double murderer Luka Magnotta have been prevented?) November 30, 2012
13 Costa Concordia: The Captain's Tale December 7, 2012
14 The Imperfect Spy (What exactly did Jeffrey Delisle do, and why?) April 10, 2017
15 The Last Race (Death of Canadian ski cross competitor Nik Zoricic in World Cup competition) January 18, 2013
16 Death in Paradise (Unexplained tourist deaths may be linked to pesticide use) January 25, 2013
17 Target bin Laden February 1, 2013
18 Crossfire (National Rifle Association's influence in USA and Canada) February 8, 2013
19 The Unrepentant (Canadian psychopaths "Lightning" Lee, Russell Williams, Karla Homolka, and two young offenders) February 22, 2013
20 The Vanishing (Disappearance of Wendy Ratté) March 1, 2013
21 Second Wave (Debris from 2011 Japanese tsunami begins to reach Canadian coasts) March 8, 2013
22 Ironman (Russ George's massive iron fertilization project off BC's West Coast) March 29, 2013
23 Mission Improbable (Cythia Vanier, SNC Lavalin, and an alleged plot to smuggle Saadi Gadhafi and his family into Mexico) April 5, 2013
24 Rate My Hospital April 12, 2013

Season 39 (2013–14)

The 2013–14 Television season was the 39th season of The Fifth Estate.

Episode Title Original air date
1 The Secrets of Sugar October 4, 2013
2 Made in Bangladesh October 11, 2013
3 The Murder and the Money Trail October 18, 2013
4 Elephants on Board: A Journey to Remember October 25, 2013
5 The Strange World of Julian Assange November 1, 2013
6 The Rob Ford Story November 8, 2013
7 The Sextortion of Amanda Todd November 15, 2013
8 The Conspiracy Files: JFK and 9/11 November 22, 2013
9 The Last Great Escape November 29, 2013
10 Silence of the Labs January 10, 2013
11 The Man Who Hears Voices January 17, 2014
12 Walk the Line January 22, 2014
13 Voyage of the Black Dragon January 31, 2014
14 Rabbi of the Pure Hearts: Inside Lev Tahor February 28, 2014
15 The Rise and Fall of Mike Duffy March 7, 2014
16 Return to Paradise (Pesticides used in a tropical resort hotel room may have killed guests.) March 14, 2014
17 Dead Enough (Canada's varying standards for declaring death affects organ transplants) March 21, 2014
18 Your Tips, Our Stories (Stories from viewer tips: a man deceives Canadian women into supporting him financially; the Halifax death of a young blind woman is re-examined; the worst case of small-town corruption) March 28, 2014
19 To be announced March 9, 2015

Season 43 (2017–18)

The 2017–18 Television season was the 43rd season of The Fifth Estate.

Episode Title Broadcast Date
1 Murder in Cottage Country September 15, 2017
2 Pit Bulls Unleashed: Should They Be Banned September 22, 2017
3 The Truth Smugglers September 29, 2017
4 Jagmeet Singh: The Colour of Politics October 13, 2017
5 Motherisk: Tainted Tests & Broken Families

October 20, 2017
6 Via Rail Terror Plot : The Inside Man

October 27, 2017
7 TransCanada and Keystone XL : The Money Pipeline

November 3, 2017
8 The Super Scalpers

November 10, 2017
9 The JFK Files: The Murder of a President

November 17, 2017
10 Basil Borutski and the Wilno Murders: Circle of Fear

November 24, 2017

Season 45 (2019–20)

The 2019–20 Television season is the 45th season of The Fifth Estate.

Episode Title Broadcast Date
1 Targeted ; Is Murder In Your DNA? September 22, 2019
2 When Terror Comes Home September 29, 2019

Reception

Awards

The Fifth Estate has won many awards, including Gemini Awards – among them ten for Best Information Series, numerous domestic investigative journalism awards, many New York and Columbus awards, International Emmys, and in 2000 and 2010 the Michener Award, Canada's top journalism prize, which is open to all media and has only one annual winner. A 2003 co-production[8] with The New York Times and PBS's Frontline was recognized with the Pulitzer,[9] Peabody,[10] Polk[11] and other awards.

The Fifth Estate is one of two television programs (with The Twilight Zone being the first) to win an Academy Award, a prize presented to theatrical films: Just Another Missing Kid, originally a The Fifth Estate episode, was released in theatres in the United States and won the 1982 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Controversy

The CBC was successfully sued for libel over an episode that aired on February 27, 1996. Two doctors were interviewed for an episode about prescription drugs. Both doctors alleged their interviews were unfairly edited to give the false impression they were involved in kickbacks, coverups of patient deaths and other disreputable activities. Cardiologist Martin Meyers asked for an apology plus $25,000, while researcher Frans Leenen asked for an apology plus $10,000. The CBC opted to fight the charges in court. The doctors ultimately prevailed. Myers was awarded $200,000, plus interest and costs, while Leenen won $950,000, plus interest and costs that could total over $2 million, a record for Canadian libel. The CBC has no libel insurance. Judges in both cases ruled that journalists at The Fifth Estate had twisted the facts and acted with malice, with one writing in his decision; this was sensationalistic journalism of the worst sort and should serve as an embarrassment to this so-called 'flagship' investigative programme. The episode's host Trish Wood, producer Nicholas Regush, the researcher and executive producer David Studer were assessed punitive and aggravated damages.[12]

The CBC and The Fifth Estate were sued by the Iglesia Ni Cristo after officials said a November 11, 2018 broadcast, "Church of Secrets", defamed their church.[13]

Notes
  1. Current host of the show

References
  1. "The story of the fifth estate". Archived from the original on September 26, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-19.
  2. "Emmy winner joins CBC's fifth estate". Toronto Star, September 23, 2016.
  3. "The Strange World of Julian Assange". CBC News.
  4. cbc.ca: Someone Got Away With Murder
  5. "Season 36 Episodes online". CBC News.
  6. "Season 37 Episodes online". CBC News.
  7. "Season 38 Episodes online". CBC News.
  8. "A Dangerous Business". Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  9. "2004 Pulitzer for Public Service". Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  10. "2003 Peabody Award". Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  11. "2003 Peabody Award". Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  12. Margaret Wente (2000) Two doctors, the CBC and a judgment, The Globe and Mail, May 13, 2000; URL accessed 11 Apr 2017
  13. Glenn Dawkins TERRIBLE STAIN: CBC sued by church over Fifth Estate story, Kingston Whig Standard, Feb 8, 2019; URL accessed 9 Feb 2019
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