The Fifth Estate

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For other uses, see Fifth Estate (disambiguation).

the fifth estate title screen.

the fifth estate is a Canadian television newsmagazine, which airs on the English language CBC Television network. The name is a play on the fact that the media are sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate, and was chosen to highlight the program's determination to go beyond everyday news into original journalism. It is normally spelled in all lowercase letters. The program has been on the air since September 16, 1975, and its primary focus is on investigative journalism. Stories from the fifth estate routinely make headlines in Canada and have been regularly exported to other television networks around the world.^{[citation needed]}

The Fifth Estate is Canada's foremost current affairs program. It has engaged in co-productions with the BBC, The New York Times, the leading Canadian newspapers The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star, and often with the PBS series Frontline.

It has won far more awards than any other Canadian information program,^{[citation needed]} including scores of Gemini awards (Canada's Emmys) among them nine for Best Information Series, numerous domestic investigative journalism awards, many New York and Columbus awards, International Emmys, and in 2000 The Michener Award, Canada's top journalism prize, which is open to all media and has only one annual winner. One recent co-production with The New York Times and PBS's Frontline was recognized with the Pulitzer, Peabody, Polk and other awards.

the fifth estate is one of two television series (with The Twilight Zone being the first) to win an Academy Award: 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.