The Fifth Estate (TV program)

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, and its primary focus is on investigative journalism. The show was launched in 1975 by Ron Haggart. 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.

The program is currently hosted by Mark Kelley and Steven D'Souza, with Ioanna Roumeliotis slated to join the show in spring 2025, following the retirement of longtime host Bob McKeown in fall 2024.

Other past personalities associated with the show have included:

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

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

The 2010–11 television season was the 36th season of The Fifth Estate.