Heartland is a Canadian family comedy-drama television series which debuted in Canada on CBC Television and originally in the United States on The CW Plus syndication on October 14, 2007. Since 2010, the series moved first-run to Up TV, but still continues to air in reruns on the latter channel as a part the service's weekend schedule.
The series is based on the Heartland book series by Lauren Brooke and follows Amy Fleming and her older sister Louise "Lou" Fleming on their Alberta-based family ranch, 'Heartland', where they live with their widowed grandfather Jack Bartlett- played by Shaun Johnston, their father Tim Fleming and hired farmhand Ty Borden. While experiencing the highs and lows of life on the ranch, the family bonds and grows closer.
With the airing of its 139th episode on March 29, 2015, Heartland surpassed Street Legal as the longest-running one-hour scripted drama in Canadian television history.
On June 1, 2022, CBC renewed the series for a 15-episode sixteenth season, premiered in Canada on October 2, 2022. In May 2023, the series was renewed for a 10-episode seventeenth season, which premiered in Canada on October 1, 2023. In May 2024, the series was renewed for an eighteenth season, which immediately began filming thereafter. It is set to premiere in Canada in the fall of 2024, and in the US later in 2025.
In the United States, the series has wide distribution through broadcast syndication on weekends, including as part of the default national schedule for Up TV and The CW Plus and new episodes become available as of 2021, on Up Faith & Family, the network's streaming service months after full seasons finish their runs in Canada and later premiere in the US linearly on the main network and all later seasons are exclusive to Up Faith & family first before they go up to available for syndication on other American networks and streaming services that aren't affiliated with UP tv or its sister networks. Reruns of older episodes air on Hulu, Pluto TV, Crackle, Tubi, BYUtv, Retro TV, COZI TV, and Heartland (which is not named for the series). It was also a part of the schedule on Light TV until it was rebranded as TheGrio TV on January 15, 2021. The show is also available on Netflix and various other streaming platforms in the US.