The Fifth Estate (TV program)

The Fifth Estate
Wordmark logo of The Fifth Estate
Title card since 2017
Genre
Starring
Country of originCanada
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons50
Production
Executive producerDiana Swain
Running time60 minutes
Production companyCanadian Broadcasting Corporation
Original release
Network
ReleaseSeptember 15, 1975 (1975-09-15) –
present
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Fifth Estate is an English-language Canadian investigative documentary series that airs on the national CBC Television 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 16 September 1975,[1] and its primary focus is on investigative journalism. The show was launched in 1975 by Ron Haggart.[2] 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 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.

  1. ^ "The story of the fifth estate". Archived from the original on September 26, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  2. ^ Powell, Betsy (August 28, 2011). "Ron Haggart, 84: Legendary journalist 'delighted in controversy'". The Toronto Star. Retrieved August 7, 2023.